Monday's attempted raid at Ballidogle military base in the outskirts of Mogadishu would have been the worst in the recent past had it succeeded.
The military base, in which US forces train Somalia's special forces commonly called Danaab, is one of the most secure within Somalia.
Cameras mounted outside the perimeter wall identified the attackers in time, giving the commandos time to prepare for a battle.
The alarm was raised. By the time the al Shabaab insurgents were a few hundred yards from the perimeter of Baledogle military airfield on Monday, Danaab - Somalia’s elite commandos - were waiting, their trainers beside them.
One truck bomb detonated far from the perimeter fence. Eight attackers in uniforms jumped from the other, but Danaab soldiers gunned them down almost immediately, said a Somali security official.Then the second truck was hit by a U.S. air strike.
The explosion was captured on video footage provided to Reuters by two security experts.
But local and international security officials dismissed Monday’s attack on Baledogle - which followed a separate bomb attack on an Italian military convoy - as a high-profile stunt rather than a serious assault.
“This is a publicity stunt,” said the Somali security official who provided details of the attack on condition of anonymity. “Baledogle military airfield is very highly defended. It’s not easy (to attack). You can always try, but you will not succeed."
The base is home to U.S. special forces, Somalia’s Danaab and Washington D.C.-based Bancroft Global, which has a U.S. government contract to train Danaab.
The Somali National News agency said the attack was over in 10 minutes.
“I don’t think even they thought they would succeed,” the Somali official said. “But there are a lot of military gains happening in Lower Shabelle and across the country... This is a way to show ‘we are still here; we are still alive,’ to get attention.”
But the attempted raid could lead to changing of strategy by US which recently opposed Kenya's push to have the Al-Shabaab militants listed as terrorists group.
Kenya, which is also one of the main security stakeholder in Somalia, is threatening to pull out due to ongoing maritime dispute with Somalia.
While President Uhuru Kenyatta is pushing for negotiations, Somalia's Mohammed Farmaajo wants the matter to be handled at International Court of Justice.