Somalia

[sf11b_p]

Early report and FOX is now reporting.
A senior al Qaeda operative behind the 1998 attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania is believed to have been killed during a raid by covert forces in southern Somalia.

Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and another person are thought to have been killed in the southern town of Barawe during a raid by what was originally reported to be French commandos, however is now said to have been carried out by US Special Forces.

Witnesses said foreign troops swept into the town on helicopters, fired missles from an attack helicopter, and killed Nabhan and another terrorist, and captured two others after wounding them, Mareeg reported. Nabhan's body was recovered, ABC News later reported

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/09/senior_al_qaeda_lead_7.php#ixzz0R6mtQVLX

longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/09/senior_al_qaeda_lead_7.php

[mac117]

Outstanding!

[rltipton]

Nice work! Enjoy your 40 virgins, jackass.

[Gypsy]

I love reading good news. Well done, Gents!

[Richard]

Yes. ;)

Richard's $.02 :munchin

U.S. Kills Top Qaeda Leader in Southern Somalia
Jeffrey Gettleman and Eric Schmitt, NYT, 14 Sep 2009

American commandos killed one of the most wanted Islamic militants in Africa in a daylight raid in southern Somalia on Monday, according to American and Somali officials, an indication of the Obama administration’s willingness to use combat troops strategically against Al Qaeda’s growing influence in the region.

Western intelligence agents have described the militant, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, as the ringleader of a Qaeda cell in Kenya responsible for the bombing of an Israeli hotel on the Kenyan coast in 2002. Mr. Nabhan may have also played a role in the attacks on two American embassies in East Africa in 1998.

American military forces have been hunting him for years, and on Monday, around 1 p.m., villagers near the town of Baraawe said four military helicopters suddenly materialized over the horizon and shot at two trucks rumbling through the desert.

The trucks were carrying leaders of the Shabab, an Islamist extremist group fighting to overthrow Somalia’s weak but internationally recognized government. The Shabab work hand-in-hand with foreign terrorists, according to Western and Somali agents, and in the past few months, as the battle for control of Somalia has intensified, the group seems to be drawing increasingly close to Al Qaeda.

American officials on Monday provided few details, but confirmed that Special Operations forces, operating from a nearby American warship, participated in the helicopter raid.

Under the administration of President George W. Bush, the American military used long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles and AC-130 gunships to carry out strikes against terrorism suspects in Somalia. One American adviser said the decision to use commandos and not long-range missiles in this case may reflect a shift by the Obama administration to go to greater lengths to avoid civilian deaths. In the past, many Somali villagers have been killed by American missiles.

But urgency was a major, if not overriding, factor as well. A senior American military official said the Special Operations forces, who had kept Mr. Nabhan under lengthy surveillance waiting for the right moment to strike, acted quickly after tracking Mr. Nabhan to a location away from civilians on Monday. “We have been watching him for a long, long time,” said the military official.

Despite the danger of conducting the mission during the day, the strategy ensured that the troops could more accurately identify their target, attack it and confirm the deaths afterward. “This approach was, ‘Let’s do it very quickly, very swiftly and confirm he’s gone,’ ” the adviser said.

Mr. Nabhan played an increasingly important role as a senior instructor for new militant recruits, including some Americans, as well as a liaison to senior Qaeda leaders in Pakistan, the senior American adviser said.

“This is very significant because it takes away a person who’s been a main conduit between the East Africa extremists and big Al Qaeda,” said the adviser, who like several United States officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the classified nature of the mission.

The helicopters, with commandos firing .50-caliber machine guns and other automatic weapons, quickly disabled the trucks, according to villagers in the area, and several of the Shabab fighters tried to fire back. Shabab leaders said that six foreign fighters, including Mr. Nabhan, were quickly killed, along with three Somali Shabab. The helicopters landed, and the commandos inspected the wreckage and carried away the bodies of Mr. Nabhan and the other fighters for identification, a senior American military official said.

“We are very upset, very upset,” said a Shabab official from the town of Merka, near where the raid happened. “This is a big loss for us.”

Mr. Nabhan, who was thought to be around 30 years old and of Yemeni descent, was born in Mombasa, on Kenya’s coast. American intelligence sources have said that he masterminded the suicide bombing of the Paradise hotel in Mombasa, which killed 11 Kenyans and 3 Israelis and wounded dozens of others.

The Paradise was a popular Israeli hangout, complete with a kosher restaurant and synagogue. That same day, Nov. 28, 2002, a group of assailants fired several missiles at an Israeli passenger jet at the Mombasa airport, narrowly missing it. Intelligence agents said Mr. Nabhan helped fire the missiles.

Mr. Nabhan was one of the handful of Qaeda terrorists hiding out in Somalia for years, taking advantage of the country’s chaos to elude agents pursuing them.

Mr. Nabhan was believed to be a close associate of Fazul Abdullah Mohamed, Al Qaeda’s East Africa operations chief, who helped organize the bombings of the American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, which killed more than 200 people. American military forces have tried to kill Mr. Nabhan and Mr. Mohamed with airstrikes several times in recent years.

The Baraawe area, like much of southern Somalia, is controlled by the Shabab. There is increasing evidence that foreign jihadists, like Mr. Nabhan, are leading Somali Shabab and training them in suicide bombs.

American officials said Mr. Nabhan’s death is likely to send other suspects scurrying for cover. When they resurface, there may be killings of those suspected of being informants, sowing further turmoil in their ranks, American officials said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/world/africa/15raid.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[frostfire]

Thanks for the post.
Great message to be sent to all who choose to follow Saleh's path.

You can hide, but not for long...
You can run, but you'll only die tired...

Well done, gents

[armymom1228]

however is now said to have been carried out by US Special Forces.



Thank you gentlemen, a job well done. :)
AM

[Pete]

".........“We are very upset, very upset,” said a Shabab official from the town of Merka, near where the raid happened. “This is a big loss for us.”.........."

I'm not upset at all. In fact I'm happy.

[Richard]

Somali's aren't all upset, either...;)

Richard's $.02 :munchin

Somali Group Lauds U.S. Killing Of al Qaeda Suspect
Reuters, 15 Sep 2007

A Somali militia opposed to Islamist insurgents al Shabaab praised a U.S. commando raid that killed one of the region's most wanted al Qaeda suspects and called for more strikes to wipe out foreign jihadists.

U.S. special forces in helicopters struck a car in rebel-held southern Somalia Monday, killing the Kenyan said to have built the truck bomb that claimed 15 lives at an Israeli-owned beach hotel on the Kenyan coast in 2002.

"We are very pleased with the helicopters that killed the foreign al Shabaab fighters," Sheikh Abdullahi Sheikh Abu Yussuf, the Ahlu Sunna spokesman, told Reuters late Monday.

"God sent birds against those who attacked the Holy Mosque, the Ka'ba, millennia ago. The same way, God has sent bombers against al Shabaab. We hope more aircraft will destroy the rest of al Shabaab, who have abused Islam and massacred Somalis."

Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, 28, was also accused of involvement in a simultaneous, but botched, missile attack on a Israeli airliner full of tourists as it took off from nearby Mombasa.

A senior Somali government source said he was killed along with four other foreign members of the al Shabaab insurgent group, which Washington says is al Qaeda's proxy in Somalia.

Western security agencies say the failed Horn of Africa state has become a safe haven for militants, including foreign jihadists, who use it to plot attacks in the region and beyond.

Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca has fought al Shabaab for months across Somalia's central and southern regions and is allied with the U.N.-backed government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, whose administration controls parts of the central region and some of Mogadishu.

Nahban was killed near Roobow village in Barawe District, some 250 km (150 miles) south of the capital. U.S. sources familiar with the operation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States believed his body was in U.S. custody.

A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment "on any alleged operation in Somalia." The U.S. military has launched airstrikes inside Somalia in the past against individuals blamed for the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1988.

In May last year, U.S. warplanes killed the then-leader of al Shabaab and al Qaeda's top man in the country, Afghan-trained Aden Hashi Ayro, in an attack on the central town of Dusamareb.

Violence has killed more than 18,000 Somalis since the start of 2007 and driven another 1.5 million from their homes.

That has triggered one of the world's worst aid emergencies, with the number of people needing help leaping 17.5 percent in a year to 3.76 million, or half the population.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090915/ts_nm/us_somalia_conflict_5

[Ret10Echo]

Excellant work!


AP Version of the story:

Somali official: terror suspect killed in US raid
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, Associated Press Writer Mohamed Olad Hassan, Associated Press Writer
33 mins ago

MOGADISHU, Somalia – One of Africa's most wanted al-Qaida suspects has been killed in a U.S. raid in southern Somalia, the deputy mayor for security affairs in Somalia's capital said Tuesday.

Citing intelligence reports, Abdi Fitah Shawey confirmed that Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan was killed in Monday's attack in an insurgent-held town near Barawe, some 155 miles (250 kilometers) south of Mogadishu. U.S. military officials say American forces were involved in the raid.

"Our security intelligence reports confirm that Nabhan was killed," Shawey told The Associated Press. He did not elaborate on the intelligence reports.

Nabhan is a Kenyan wanted for questioning in connection with the car bombing of a beach resort in Kenya and the near simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner in 2002. Ten Kenyans and three Israelis were killed in the blast at the hotel. The missiles missed the airliner.

Two U.S. military officials said forces from the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command were involved. The officials gave no details about the raid or its target, and they spoke on condition of anonymity because the operation was secret.

Somali witnesses to Monday's raid say six helicopters buzzed the village before two of the aircraft opened fire on a vehicle. Witness Abdi Ahmed said soldiers in military fatigues then got out of the aircraft and left with the wounded men.

The commando-style action took place amid growing fears that al-Qaida is gaining a foothold in this lawless nation.

Many experts fear Somalia is becoming a haven for al-Qaida, a place for terrorists to train and gather strength — much like Afghanistan in the 1990s. The U.N.-backed government, with support from African Union peacekeepers, holds only a few blocks of Mogadishu, the war-ravaged capital.

Last year, U.S. missiles killed reputed al-Qaida commander Aden Hashi Ayro — marking the first major success after a string of U.S. military attacks in 2008.

Like much of Somalia, Barawe and its surrounding villages are controlled by the militant group al-Shabab, which the U.S. accuses of having ties to al-Qaida. Al-Shabab, which has foreign fighters in its ranks, seeks to overthrow the government and impose a strict form of Islam in Somalia.

[The antihero]

Well done soldiers!

[The Reaper]

Well done soldiers!

I believe it was sailors.

TR