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Neighbours and members of Libya's
militia have given details of the swift special forces operation which
swept through Tripoli on Saturday before seizing its al Qaeda target.
Black Hawk Down disaster averted in US special forces raids on Libya and Somalia
- News Limited Network
- October 07, 2013
US special forces raid terrorists in Africa 2:17
US special forces have raided terrorist organisations in Africa, reportedly killing a key Al-Shabab figure.
This image provided by the FBI shows Abu Anas al Libi.
THEY came from the sea in the dark of the night - part of a two-pronged assault on international terrorism.
Details are emerging of the weekend assault by US Navy SEAL special
forces on a beachside al Shabab terrorist stronghold in Somalia, which
ended in retreat as the Americans became bogged down under heavy
gunfire.It came as another daring US raid, on a terror leader in Libya, was carried off successfully - ending a 15-year manhunt for a man with a $5 million bounty on his head.
In scenes reminiscent of the military disaster made famous as Black Hawk Down, the commandos in Somalia were swarmed by local militia fighters after they emerged from the sea off the town of Barawe,
In the fierce gun battle that followed, the special forces team slipped back into the night under the cover of helicopter and naval gunfire support - narrowly avoiding a repeat of the 1993 disaster in Mogadishu where Delta Force troops became trapped after a raid to capture a warlord went seriously wrong.
The weekend target - a Kenyan leader of al Shabab known as Ikrima - slipped through the raiders' grasp.
The Libyan attack, however, had better results, with soldiers believed to belong to the elite Delta Force racing through the streets of Tripoli to capture alleged al Qaeda operative Abu Anas al Libi.
While details of both raids are sketchy, the following details have been compiled from accounts by both local eye-witnesses and US government officials.
The sons of al Qaeda suspect
Abu Anas al Libi show members of the press their father's car, from
which he was taken by US special forces in Tripoli suburb Nofliene. AFP
/ STR
Neighbours and members of Libya's militia have given details of the swift special forces operation which swept through Tripoli on Saturday before seizing its al Qaeda target. Some US news agencies are attributing the raid to the US's "Delta Force" special operations troops.
Anas al Libi had just parked his car outside his home in Nofliene - a suburb of Tripoli - after returning from dawn prayers. Suddenly, 10 commandos raced forward in several vehicles and surrounded him, his brother Nabih al Ruqai told the Associated Press. They smashed his car's window and seized his gun before grabbing al Libi and fleeing.
"As I was opening my house door, I saw a group of cars coming quickly from the direction of the house where al Libi lives. I was shocked by this movement in the early morning," said one of his neighbors, who did not give his name, "They kidnapped him. We do not know who they are."
The sons of al Qaeda suspect
Abu Anas al Libi point at the scene where their father was seized by US
special forces in Nofliene, close to the Libyan capital Tripoli. AFP /
STR
Mohammed El-Hadi, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Tripoli, said Libi's wife saw the attack unfold.
"His wife saw the men getting out of two cars in front of the house - she added that the masked men immediately attacked him before he could get out of his car," the correspondent said. "She said she was listening to them and heard some of them speaking in a Libyan dialect."
Anas al Libi is believed to be being held on a US warship in the Mediterranean for "questioning". Picture: AFP
US Defence Department spokesman George Little said he was being held "in a secure location outside of Libya".
Libya has said it has asked the United States for "clarifications" regarding the "kidnap" of al Libi, who is believed to be aboard a US warship in international waters in the Mediterranean. US officials have said he will remain there for "several days" for questioning before being handed over to law enforcement officials.
US Navy Seals reportedly swam
ashore before attacking a beachside headquarters of the terrorist group
al Shabab, which has claimed responsibility for last month's attack on a
Kenyan shopping mall.
The outcome of the US commando raid in Somalia, targeting a leader of the al Qaeda affiliated terrorist group al Shabab, was initially less clear.
A US official has told media that the target of the Friday raid was a Kenyan al Shabab leader going by the name of Ikrima, believed linked to the recent massacre at Kenya's Westgate shopping mall. The special forces operatives failed to find their man.
The US Navy SEAL soldiers reportedly swam ashore in the dark of the night before engaging in in a fierce firefight in the seaside town of Barawe, some 240km south of Mogadishu.
Al Shabab - a fanatical Islamist group linked to al Qaeda - has released a statement saying the assault came from the sea.
US Navy SEAL soldiers - specialists in sea-borne assaults - conducted the raid on the Somali town of Barawe
Residents have told media that they were woken by the sound of heavy gunfire at 3am.
Local militants reportedly rushed to the compound under assault in an effort to capture US soldiers in a scenario similar to that of the 1993 "Black Hawk down" disaster in Mogadishu when Delta Force troops attempted to seize a local warlord.
A US special forces raid on
Somalia in 1993 went badly wrong, with troops sent to capture a Somali
warlord themselves becoming surrounded and cut off from support.
The gun battle - which involved helicopters providing air support and possible naval artillery gunfire support - reportedly lasted more than an hour.
"We also heard sounds of shells, but we do not know where they landed," one resident told Reuters.
A woman, who gave her name to the Wall Street Journal as Fartun, said that she had seen the body of one dead al Shabab fighter. She also said she saw a trail of blood on the path that the foreign commandos had used to return to their boats. "We saw a stain of blood on the way leading from the house to the beach of the town," she said.
The house was reportedly occupied by foreign fighters who had been assisting Somali members of al Shabab.
Armed al Shabab fighters are show in in this file photograph from 2008. AP / Farah Abdi Warsameh
A Somalian intelligence official confirmed the targets of the raid were "high-profile" foreigners who had been staying in the house.
He said a Chechen commander had been wounded and members of his guard killed. Somali police say a total of seven people were killed in the attack.
A US official said the Americans disengaged after inflicting some al Shabab casualties, but it was unclear who was hit. The official was granted anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly.
"We disengaged after the initial assault on al Shabab. We took precautions to minimize civilian casualties," the official said, adding that no US personnel were wounded or killed in the operation.
Al Shabab has released this
picture via Twitter purporting to show ammunition and equipment
abandoned by US Navy SEALS after their failed assault on a stronghold
near the Somali town of Barawe
A resident of Barawe has said militants had closed down the town after the attack, conducting house-to-house searches - apparently for a spy who they believe led the Americans to the compound.
"We woke up to find al Shabab fighters had sealed off the area and their hospital is also inaccessible," the man, who gave his name as Mohamed Bile, told The Associated Press by phone. "The town is in a tense mood."
It is not the first US special forces raid on Barawe.
US Navy SEAL special forces troops reported swam to the beach before attacking a terrorist sea-side stronghold in Somalia.
US Navy SEALs tracked down and killed al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden in Pakistan two years ago.
In January 2012, SEALs parachuted into Somalia to rescue two aid workers being held by militants.
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