Fox News
Tuesday, October 08, 2013
U.S. Navy SEALS from SEAL Team Six cut short their targeted operation
against a top al-Shabaab commander in Somalia after a firefight at his
seaside compound ended when they saw children and realized they could
not capture their target.
As details began emerging about the Friday night raid to capture
Abdikadir Mohamed Abdikadir, known as “Ikrima,” Pentagon press
secretary George Little said in a statement Monday the military
personnel “conducted the operation with unparalleled precision.”
Military sources told Fox News that military gear that was left
behind, then photographed and tweeted out by al Shabaab, was typical of
the gear used by SEALs and showed they left in a hurry.
Al Shabaab is the militant group in Somalia linked to last month’s Kenya mall attack that killed more than 60 people.
SEAL Team Six is the same unit that killed Usma bin Laden in his Pakistan hideout in 2011.
Meanwhile, a team of military, intelligence and Justice Department
interrogators has been sent to the USS San Antonio in international
waters to question terror suspect Abu Anas al-Libi, who was captured in
Libya over the weekend in a separate raid, two law enforcement officials
told The Associated Press on Monday.
The USS San Antonio is a Marine amphibious vessel that was sent
during the Syrian crisis to the Eastern Mediterranean but is no longer
there.
Al-Libi was indicted in 2000 for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa.
The Obama administration has said it can hold high value detainees on
a ship for as long as it needs to. During his confirmation hearing in
June 2011 to be the head of U.S. Special Operations Command, Adm.
William McRaven said the U.S. could keep a detainee on a ship for as
long as it takes to determine whether the U.S. could prosecute the
suspect in civilian court or if the U.S. could return the suspect to
another country.