Author Topic: U.S. Says Navy SEALs Stage Raid on Somali Militants  (Read 1396 times)

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Offline flowers

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U.S. Says Navy SEALs Stage Raid on Somali Militants
« on: October 05, 2013, 09:45:40 pm »
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/world/africa/mall-attack-also-involved-kenyans-official-says.html?smid=tw-bna&_r=1&

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NAIROBI, Kenya — A Navy SEAL team targeted a senior leader of the Shabab militant group in a raid on his seaside villa in the Somali town of Baraawe on Saturday, American officials said, in response to a deadly attack on a Nairobi shopping mall for which the group had claimed responsibility.


 The SEAL team stealthily approached the beachfront house by sea, firing on the unidentified target in a predawn gunbattle that was the most significant raid by American troops on Somali soil since commandos killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Qaeda mastermind, near the same town four years ago.

The Shabab leader was believed to have been killed in the firefight, but the SEALS were forced to withdraw before that could be confirmed, a senior American official said. Such operations by American forces are rare because they carry a high risk, and indicate that the target was considered a high priority. Baraawe, a small port town south of Mogadishu, the Somali capital, is known as a gathering place for the Shabab’s foreign fighters.

“The Baraawe raid was planned a week and a half ago,” said an American security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity about a classified operation. “It was prompted by the Westgate attack,” he added, referring to the mall in Nairobi that was overrun by militants two weeks ago, leaving more than 60 dead.

Witnesses in the area described a firefight lasting over an hour, with helicopters called in for air support. A senior Somali government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed the raid, saying, “The attack was carried out by the American forces and the Somali government was pre-informed about the attack.”

A spokesman for the Shabab, which is based in Somalia, said that one of its fighters had been killed in an exchange of gunfire but that the group had beaten back the assault. American official initially reported that they had seized the Shabab leader, but later backed off of that account. The deadly assault on the Westgate shopping mall was a stark reminder of the power and reach of the Islamist group, which had a series of military setbacks in recent years and was widely viewed as weakened.

The F.B.I. sent dozens of agents to Nairobi after the shopping mall siege to help Kenyan authorities with the investigation. United States officials fear that the Shabab could attempt a similar attack on American soil, perhaps employing several of the group’s Somali-American recruits.

Another United States official said it was still unclear whether any Americans were involved in the Westgate mall episode, though there were growing indications that fewer attackers took part in the siege than the 10 to 15 militants the government had previously announced.

A spokesman for the Kenyan military said Saturday that it had identified four of the attackers from surveillance footage. Local news media reported their names as Abu Baara al-Sudani, Omar Nabhan, Khattab al-Kene and a man known only as Umayr. “I can confirm that those are the names of the terrorists,” said Maj. Emmanuel Chirchir, the spokesman.

The footage, broadcast on Kenyan television on Friday night, showed four of the attackers moving about the mall with cool nonchalance, no hint in their demeanor that they had stormed a shopping center and massacred dozens of people, much less that they feared an imminent counterassault from Kenyan security services.

One loitered in the grocery checkout aisle, talking on his cellphone. Another slouched in a storage room like a worker on break.

At least one of the four men, Mr. Nabhan, is Kenyan, and believed to be related to Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, the Qaeda mastermind killed four years ago near Baraawe.

The elder Mr. Nabhan was a suspect in the bombing of an Israeli hotel on the Kenyan coast in 2002 and the attacks on the American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

He was one of the most wanted Islamic militants in Africa when American commandos killed him in September 2009 in an audacious daytime attack. Four military helicopters shot at two trucks rumbling through the desert, killing six foreign fighters, including Mr. Nabhan, and three Somali members of the Shabab.

Mr. Nabhan was of Yemeni descent but was born in Mombasa, on Kenya’s coast. Kenyan news media reported that the younger Mr. Nabhan also came from Mombasa, and was among the Kenyans who traveled to Somalia to train and fight with the Shabab.

Matt Bryden, the former head of the United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea, said the tactics used in the Westgate attack were similar to those used by the Shabab in a number of operations in Somalia this year. But he also said that local help was needed to pull off an attack on that scale, and that several of the men identified as taking part in the attack were connected to group’s Kenyan affiliate, known as Al Hijra.

“We should certainly expect Al Hijra and Al Shabab to try again,” Mr. Bryden said. “And we should expect them to have the capacity to do so.”

The raid on Saturday morning appeared to have been intended to blunt those capabilities. A witness in Baraawe said the house was known as a place where senior foreign commanders stayed, though he could not say whether they were there at the time of the attack.

The witness said 12 well-trained Shabab fighters scheduled for a mission abroad were staying there at the time of the assault. He confirmed that a Somali man was killed in the attack.

There was some confusion as to exactly what happened before sunrise on Saturday. Witnesses described the SEAL team using silencers in the initial attack, but a loud firefight afterward. Before confirmation that an American SEAL team was behind the attack, a Shabab spokesman said British and Turkish forces were involved, which both countries immediately denied.


Offline mystery-ak

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Re: U.S. Says Navy SEALs Stage Raid on Somali Militants
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2013, 09:52:19 pm »
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/05/20833640-navy-seals-raid-al-shabaab-stronghold-in-somalia-capture-high-level-target?lite

Navy SEALs raid al Shabaab stronghold in Somalia, capture 'high-level target'
By Jim Miklaszewski, Pete Williams and Robert Windrem , NBC News

U.S. Navy SEALs captured a “high-value target” during a pre-dawn raid Saturday on an al Shabaab stronghold in southern Somalia,  striking back at the Islamic militant group blamed for the recent attack on a Kenyan shopping mall, sources tell NBC News.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity,  would not identify the target of the raid, but one senior US official said, "It was a very good day."

Early reports from the region said there was heavy gunfire during an assault by foreign forces on a building or complex in the southern Somali town of Barawe.

Al Shabaab had claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack on the Westgate shopping mall that killed dozens of people in Nairobi, Kenya, two weeks ago.

The sources said they have no information that any British were involved in the actual raid. Al Shabaab had reported earlier that a British commander and several commandos were killed in the raid conducted by British and Turkish forces. Turkey has denied its forces were involved.
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Offline mystery-ak

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Re: U.S. Says Navy SEALs Stage Raid on Somali Militants
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2013, 09:53:07 pm »
I heard about this raid earlier and wondered if it way our guys  :patriot:
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Offline flowers

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Re: U.S. Says Navy SEALs Stage Raid on Somali Militants
« Reply #3 on: October 05, 2013, 10:07:53 pm »
Interesting he was able to fight back for Kenya but not Benghazi.  :nometalk:


Offline mystery-ak

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Re: U.S. Says Navy SEALs Stage Raid on Somali Militants
« Reply #4 on: October 05, 2013, 10:17:08 pm »
Interesting he was able to fight back for Kenya but not Benghazi.  :nometalk:

Yeah...I'm surprised he hasn't called a presser to gloat how HE ordered it....
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Offline flowers

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Re: U.S. Says Navy SEALs Stage Raid on Somali Militants
« Reply #5 on: October 05, 2013, 10:21:58 pm »
Yeah...I'm surprised he hasn't called a presser to gloat how HE ordered it....
Give them time. I am sure Biden or Barrycade will reveal the names of all the SEAL members at some point and have them take a mysterious helicopter ride.    :whistle:


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Re: U.S. Says Navy SEALs Stage Raid on Somali Militants
« Reply #6 on: October 05, 2013, 10:43:50 pm »
I'm confused.   Was I dreaming?

Wasn't the Nairobi Mall attack executed by a young white girl whose husband was a suicide bomber?  British or Irish? 
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Offline mystery-ak

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Re: U.S. Says Navy SEALs Stage Raid on Somali Militants
« Reply #7 on: October 05, 2013, 10:47:05 pm »
Fox News
BREAKING NEWS: US Navy SEALS have killed the head of the Al Shabaab militant group in Somalia linked to last month's Kenya mall attack that killed more than 60 people, Fox News confirms.
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Offline Atomic Cow

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Re: U.S. Says Navy SEALs Stage Raid on Somali Militants
« Reply #8 on: October 05, 2013, 11:49:31 pm »
I hate to be cynical, but I fully believe that this is Obama's way of creating a distraction.
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Offline Rivergirl

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Re: U.S. Says Navy SEALs Stage Raid on Somali Militants
« Reply #9 on: October 06, 2013, 12:08:30 am »
Once again the evil one is spiking the football and putting our SEALs in danger.

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Re: U.S. Says Navy SEALs Stage Raid on Somali Militants
« Reply #10 on: October 06, 2013, 02:14:49 am »
Once again the evil one is spiking the football and putting our SEALs in danger.

Exactly right.  Why on God's earth is this splashed all over the mainstream media after we have lost so many in recent times?  Wonder if Adm McRaven Ok'ed this.  Somehow I seriously doubt it.  Smacks of leftist leaks from our esteemed national security rat's nest.

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Re: U.S. Says Navy SEALs Stage Raid on Somali Militants
« Reply #11 on: October 06, 2013, 02:22:12 am »
A day late and a dollar short.  Just another snuff film to be added to Obama's growing collection.

Offline Rapunzel

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Re: U.S. Says Navy SEALs Stage Raid on Somali Militants
« Reply #12 on: October 06, 2013, 02:25:55 am »
He's determined to get all out elite killed.
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