WASHINGTON: A CIA officer was killed in combat in Somalia in recent days, US media said Thursday without releasing details of how the agent died. The veteran officer was a member of the CIA's Special Activities Center, a paramilitary branch that carries out some of the US intelligence agency's most dangerous tasks, The New York Times said.

The officer died of injuries sustained during an operation last week, according to CNN. The CIA has not commented publicly on the death.

Washington has some 700 troops deployed in Somalia carrying out training of Somali forces and conducting counter-terrorism raids against the Al-Shabaab militant group, which Washington designated a terrorist movement in 2008.