Al-Arabiya
Monday, October 07, 2013
U.S. Navy SEALs have carried out an amphibious raid on a Somali
town but failed to capture or kill a senior commander of al-Shabaab
movement, which is behind the recent deadly attack on a shopping mall in
Kenya.
U.S. officials cited by CNN and the New York Times named
the target militant commander as Ikrima, but other reports identified
the target as Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr.
Although Ikrima is not
suspected behind the Nairobi Westgate shopping mall, he is suspected to
have played a role in the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings and the
Mombasa attacks of 2002.
The target was reportedly staying at a seaside villa in the town of Baraawe, south of the Somali capital Mogadishu.
The
U.S. Special Forces faced unexpected heavy return fire from al-Shabab
militants during the operation, forcing them to pull back to avoid
civilian casualties, according to U.S. media reports.
Al-Shabab
movement later boasted that it has successfully repelled the U.S. raid
and it has reportedly released pictures of what it said was American
equipment left behind.
“The mujahidin repulsed their attack and
in Allah's wishes they have and we chased them until they reached the
coast. We have killed one white officer and wounded at least two
others,” an al-Shabaab spokesperson said, according to All Africa.com.
Baraawe
is believed to be a major gathering town for al-Shabaab militants,
which had declared allegiance to al-Qaeda, and fights to establish an
Islamist state in Somalia.
U.S. Special Forces have also recently
carried out an operation in Libya and arrested U. Libyan al-Qaeda
leader Abu Anas al-Libi, following a military raid in the streets of
Tripoli.