U.S. commando raids target terrorists in two African nations
American commandos carried out raids Saturday in two far-flung
African countries aimed at capturing fugitive terrorist suspects. Navy
SEALs emerged before dawn from the Indian Ocean to attack a seaside
villa in a Somali town known as a gathering point for militants, while
American troops assisted by FBI and CIA agents seized a suspected leader
of al-Qaeda on the streets of Tripoli, Libya.
In Tripoli, U.S. forces captured a Libyan militant who had been indicted in 2000 for his role in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The militant, born Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai and known by his nom de guerre, Abu Anas al-Liby, had a $5-million (U.S.) bounty on his head and his capture in broad daylight ended a 15-year manhunt.
The Somalia raid was planned more than a week ago, officials said, in response to a massacre by the militant Somali group al-Shabab at a Nairobi shopping mall. The Navy SEAL team targeted a senior al-Shabab leader in the town of Baraawe and exchanged gunfire with militants in a predawn firefight.
The unidentified al-Shabab leader is believed to have been killed in the firefight, but the SEAL team was forced to withdraw before that could be confirmed, a senior American security official said.
Officials said the timing of the two raids was coincidental. But coming on the same day, they underscored the importance of counterterrorism operations in North Africa. Abu Anas, the Libyan al-Qaeda leader, was the bigger prize, and officials said Saturday night that he was alive in U.S. custody. While the details about his capture were sketchy, an American official said Saturday night that he appeared to have been taken peacefully and that “he is no longer in Libya.”
Abu Anas, 49, was born in Tripoli and joined bin Laden’s organization as early as the early 1990s, when it was based in Sudan. He later moved to Britain, where he was granted political asylum as Libyan dissident. U.S. prosecutors in New York charged him in a 2000 indictment with helping to conduct “visual and photographic surveillance” of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in 1993 and again in 1995.
With an indictment pending against Abu Anas in New York, American officials did not dispute that was most likely his ultimate destination. President Barack Obama has been loath to add to the prisoner count at Guantánamo Bay, and there is precedent for delivering suspected terrorists to New York if they are under indictment there.
The raid in Somalia that targeted a leader of al-Shabab was the most significant raid by U.S. troops in that lawless country since commandos killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, an al-Qaeda mastermind, four years ago. A spokesman for al-Shabab said that one of its fighters had been killed in an exchange of gunfire but that the group had beaten back the assault. American officials initially reported that they had seized the al-Shabab leader, but later backed off that account.
In Tripoli, U.S. forces captured a Libyan militant who had been indicted in 2000 for his role in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The militant, born Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai and known by his nom de guerre, Abu Anas al-Liby, had a $5-million (U.S.) bounty on his head and his capture in broad daylight ended a 15-year manhunt.
The Somalia raid was planned more than a week ago, officials said, in response to a massacre by the militant Somali group al-Shabab at a Nairobi shopping mall. The Navy SEAL team targeted a senior al-Shabab leader in the town of Baraawe and exchanged gunfire with militants in a predawn firefight.
The unidentified al-Shabab leader is believed to have been killed in the firefight, but the SEAL team was forced to withdraw before that could be confirmed, a senior American security official said.
Officials said the timing of the two raids was coincidental. But coming on the same day, they underscored the importance of counterterrorism operations in North Africa. Abu Anas, the Libyan al-Qaeda leader, was the bigger prize, and officials said Saturday night that he was alive in U.S. custody. While the details about his capture were sketchy, an American official said Saturday night that he appeared to have been taken peacefully and that “he is no longer in Libya.”
Abu Anas, 49, was born in Tripoli and joined bin Laden’s organization as early as the early 1990s, when it was based in Sudan. He later moved to Britain, where he was granted political asylum as Libyan dissident. U.S. prosecutors in New York charged him in a 2000 indictment with helping to conduct “visual and photographic surveillance” of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in 1993 and again in 1995.
With an indictment pending against Abu Anas in New York, American officials did not dispute that was most likely his ultimate destination. President Barack Obama has been loath to add to the prisoner count at Guantánamo Bay, and there is precedent for delivering suspected terrorists to New York if they are under indictment there.
The raid in Somalia that targeted a leader of al-Shabab was the most significant raid by U.S. troops in that lawless country since commandos killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, an al-Qaeda mastermind, four years ago. A spokesman for al-Shabab said that one of its fighters had been killed in an exchange of gunfire but that the group had beaten back the assault. American officials initially reported that they had seized the al-Shabab leader, but later backed off that account.
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