http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/world/africa/mall-attack-also-involved-kenyans-official-says.html?_r=0

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.

Kenya and america should prepare for another attack, and Nigeria should prepare too.

Must something bad happen before a seige/revenge attack be carried out by the military forces? Well them try sha as long as he is dead.

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.

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.

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.

http://news.yahoo.com/u-commandos-seize-al-shabaab-leader-nairobi-attack-211536128.html

"It was prompted by the Westgate attack," he added, referring to a militant assault on a Nairobi shopping mall two weeks ago in which at least 67 people were killed.

The Times quoted witnesses as saying that the firefight lasted more than an hour, with helicopters called in for air support.

The Times report quoted a spokesman for al Shabaab as saying that one of its fighters had been killed in an exchange of gunfire but that the group had beaten back the assault.

The U.S. officials said it was unclear whether the SEAL team's target was taken alive or killed.

The paper said a senior Somali government official confirmed the raid, saying, "The attack was carried out by the American forces and the Somali government was pre-informed about the attack."

Bossforeva: AMERICA attacked OSAMA BIN LADEN house, he went into EXTINCTION..
NIGERIAN attacked ABUBAKAR SHEKAU house, he reappeared after 3-days.

Join d Nigerian Army and put in ur best. I know u can make a difference. They need pple like u.

So how come they could not do this in Afghanistan for Osma bin Laden and Iraq for Hussein they had to destroy the whole land and hire their cronies build it back up

Have seen that Movie too!

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20131005-u.s.-strikes-back-at-extremists-behind-kenya-mall-attack-1998-embassy-bombings.ece?nclick_check=1

MOGADISHU, Somalia — In a stealthy seaside assault in Somalia and in a raid in Libya's capital, U.S. military forces on Saturday struck out against Islamic extremists who have carried out terrorist attacks in East Africa, snatching a man allegedly involved in the bombings of U.S. embassies 15 years ago but missing a man linked to last month's attack on a Nairobi shopping mall.

A U.S. Navy SEAL team slipped ashore near a southern Somalia town before the al-Qaida-linked militants rose for dawn prayers, U.S. and Somali officials told The Associated Press. The raid on a house in the town of Barawe targeted a specific al-Qaida suspect related to the mall attack, but the operation did not get its target, one current and one former U.S. military official told AP.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the raid publicly.

Within hours of the Somalia attack, relatives of a Libyan al-Qaida leader wanted for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania said he was kidnapped outside his house Saturday in Tripoli, Libya. A U.S. official said it was American forces who captured Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, known by his alias Anas al-Libi, who has been wanted by the U.S. for more than a decade.

A resident of Barawe - a seaside town 240 kilometers (150 miles) south of Mogadishu - said by telephone that heavy gunfire woke up residents before dawn prayers.

The U.S. forces attacked a two-story beachside house in Barawe where foreign fighters lived, battling their way inside, said an al-Shabab fighter who gave his name as Abu Mohamed and who said he had visited the scene. Al-Shabab has a formal alliance with al-Qaida, and hundreds of men from the U.S., Britain and Middle Eastern countries fight alongside Somali members of al-Shabab.

A separate U.S. official described the action in Barawe as a capture operation against a high-value target. The official said U.S. forces engaged al-Shabab militants and sought to avoid civilian casualties. The U.S. forces disengaged target after inflicting some casualties on fighters, said the official, who was not authorized to speak by name and insisted on anonymity.

The leader of the al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group al-Shabab, Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, also known as Ahmed Godane, claimed responsibility for the attack on the upscale mall in Nairobi, Kenya, a four-day terrorist siege that began on Sept. 21 and killed at least 67 people. A Somali intelligence official said the al-Shabab leader was the target of Saturday's raid.

An al-Shabab official, Sheikh Abdiaziz Abu Musab, said in an audio message that the raid failed to achieve its goals.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/somalia/10358587/US-Navy-Seals-targeted-senior-al-Shabaab-commander-in-Somalia-raid.html

The latest attack, carried out in the early hours of Saturday, was believed to be the most significant US operation in Somalia since 2009, when a team of SEALs attacked Barawe and killed six al-Shabaab fighters, including one senior commander.

Separately, a leading suspect in the bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 was reported to have been either captured or killed by US forces on the streets of Tripoli, the Libyan capital.

Abu Anas el-Liby, whose real name is Nazih Abd al Hamid al-Ruqhay, was indicted by a New York court in 2000 for playing a role in planning the deadly attacks.

Since then the Libyan terror suspect has been one of America's most wanted fugitives. The FBI had offered a reward of $5 million for information leading to his capture.

A US navy Seal team swam ashore near Barawe, southern Somalia, before dawn prayers, US and Somali officials told the Associated Press.

They approaching a two-storey beachfront property in small boats, reportedly supported by a helicopter and naval gunfire.

The raid was carried out by members of Seal team six, the same unit that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in his Pakistan hideout in 2011, another senior US military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorised to speak publicly.

This time the Seal team members encountered fiercer resistance than expected, and after a 15-20 minute firefight, the unit leader decided to abort the mission and they swam away, the official said. Seal team six has responsibility for counter-terrorism activities in the Horn of Africa.

US navy commandos killed a senior al-Qaida member in the same town four years ago.

The New York Times quoted a US security official as saying that the target was believed to have been killed, but later accounts called that into question.

Why do groups like al Shabaab spend so much time and energy murdering fellow black Africans?

Don't they realize that we ALL end up losing? Asia is busy passing us by while we are killing each other.

The black race should be focused on economic prosperity, not terrorism and tribalism.

Just when we finally start to shake off sit tight leaders, foreign interference, and many other opportunity killing afflictions that have held us back for decades, we start copying TERRORISM!

What is wrong with us! Why are we trying to follow follow the Middle East? They have NOTHING for us.

We hope these attacks will end so that we can move this continent forward. God will crush all these terrorists and protect Africa and Israel

Somebody from Hollywood is definitely going to make a blockbuster movie out of this raid.

The location is an exotic tropical beach infested with bloodthirsty terrorists. Gliding in silently aboard underwater jet-skis, the SEAL team creeps up from the surf to a commence the meticulously pre-planned assault on an opulent mansion that looms atop a wind-swept bluff.

Sentries grunt and drop with a thud, as silenced projectiles find their mark. Then the fireworks erupt, lighting the sky in crimson red. Hunched figures, laden with killing gear, sprint the courtyard, loosing off 3-round bursts to liquify the yelling guards as they emerge shooting wildly into the night. Shaped charges breached iron doors with reverberant booms as pandemonium ensues.

Go SEAL Team 6 ! Lock and load and do YO thang. Yes suh ! Bin Laden got took down by that odds-defying band of brothers, and naturally that surgical procedure then became the template now applicable to ALL criminals and ideologues who kill the innocent ANYWHERE on this green Earth.

My hearty congratulations go to President Obama for approving the unleashing of this formidable force among forces for the righteous - SEAL Team 6.

@title
Should be justice or better still good riddance rather than revenge.

Thats great new

Jakumo: Somebody from Hollywood is definitely going to make a blockbuster movie out of this raid.

The location is an exotic tropical beach infested with bloodthirsty terrorists. Gliding in silently aboard underwater jet-skis, the SEAL team creeps up from the surf to a commence the meticulously pre-planned assault on an opulent mansion that looms atop a wind-swept bluff.

Sentries grunt and drop with a thud, as silenced projectiles find their mark. Then the fireworks erupt, lighting the sky in crimson red. Hunched figures, laden with killing gear, sprint the courtyard, loosing off 3-round bursts to liquify the yelling guards as they emerge shooting wildly into the night. Shaped charges breached iron doors with reverberant booms as pandemonium ensues.

Go SEAL Team 6 ! Lock and load and do YO thang. Yes suh ! Bin Laden got took down by that odds-defying band of brothers, and naturally that surgical procedure then became the template now applicable to ALL criminals and ideologues who kill the innocent ANYWHERE on this green Earth.

My hearty congratulations go to President Obama for approving the unleashing of this formidable force among forces for the righteous - SEAL Team 6.

Film director Prince Jakumo . . . .