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Africa Horn
Fog of War: NYT sez US commandos seize al Shabaab leader in Nairobi attack response
2013-10-06
[Ynet] A US Navy SEAL team seized a big shot of the al-Shabaab
... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
krazed killer group from a seaside villa in Somalia on Saturday in response to a deadly attack on a Nairobi shopping mall last month, the New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
quoted US officials as saying.

The SEAL team seized the unidentified target in a predawn firefight after approaching the beachfront house in the Somali town of Barawe by sea, the paper reported on its website.
So is this a separate raid, or was it Americans instead of the Brits and Turks the Al Shabaab spokes-turban claimed?
I think this was the raid they were talking about, and that they were taking a wild guess at who the raiders were.
I'm impressed. Using a SEAL team to grab a Shaboob number three? Obama authorized that? Really?
U.S. forces take part in 2 Africa raids targeting alleged terrorists
U.S. military forces were involved in two separate operations in Africa - one of them targeting a member of the group Al-Shabaab that was behind last month's Kenya mall attack, and the other going after an al Qaeda leader tied to bombings of two U.S. embassies.

The Al-Shabaab raid took place in Somalia, where that terrorist group is based, sometime in the past 24 hours, a senior U.S. official said Saturday evening.

The team of U.S. Navy SEALs had to withdraw before it could confirm whether it killed the target because they came under fire, the official said. The SEALs made the "prudent decision" to withdraw rather than engage in further combat, according to the official.

The other mission ended in the capture of Abu Anas al Libi, who is suspected to have played a significant role in the August 7, 1998, bombings of American embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; and Nairobi, Kenya, U.S. officials said.
Posted by:trailing wife

#13  COMMATVAQHOUSEPAC. Right - what does it stand for?
Yep,, us Airedales do do it different. pappy, thanks for omitting the required adjective regarding the F@@@ing airdales.

Anyway: COMmander Medium ATtack Electronic ATtack House PACific

(back when we had real attack airplanes and not plastic toys. don't know how they got VAQ out of Electronic Attack ( The EA6Bs) )
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2013-10-06 23:53  

#12  By most accounts, US Army's DELTA FORCE captured senior "core" Al-Qaeda leader Abu Anas al-Libi in the Libya raid, while the USN SEALS struck AL-Shabaab/Shabab but the target wasn't found.

* WAFF > [Hurriyet] AMERICAN, BRITISH, + TURKISH SPECIAL FORCES HIT AL-QAIDA IN SOMALIA + LIBYA.

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US COMMANDOS NAB AL-QAIDA LEADER LINKED TO 1998 EMBASSY BOMBINGS.

versus

* NAHARNET.LB > BRITAIN SAYS FORCES NOT INVOLVED IN SOMALI RAID.

* SAME > LIBYA, SOMALIA RAIDS SHOW [both] US REACH, MESS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2013-10-06 23:28  

#11  The Seal raid was pushed back into the sea by a dozen heavily armed shabaab regulars.
Posted by: Thrans Splat1574   2013-10-06 22:28  

#10  We just called it COMNAVHOUSEPAC. The airdales do it differently.
Posted by: Pappy   2013-10-06 21:35  

#9  Right - what does it stand for?
Posted by: RandomJD   2013-10-06 21:16  

#8  COMMATVAQHOUSEPAC
Sorry Random, that is Naval-ese for Spousal Unit.
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2013-10-06 18:03  

#7  I'm impressed. Using a SEAL team to grab a Shaboob number three? Obama authorized that? Really?

Don't be messin' wit Kenya.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2013-10-06 15:16  

#6  We
here is the vid or pics of Champ intently watching the live feed? Or was he on the links while the op went down?
Posted by: Bobby   2013-10-06 14:32  

#5  In related news "Libya Apologizes For Harboring Islamofascistic Terrorist Leader Protests 'Kidnap' Of Al Qaeda Suspect".

Apparently the Libyans didn't understand any part of "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them."
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660   2013-10-06 13:17  

#4  COMMATVAQHOUSEPAC?
Posted by: RandomJD   2013-10-06 13:12  

#3  Keep the troops busy, less time to biatch about the current pay situation and closed commissaries back home ( static from COMMATVAQHOUSEPAC can be a real morale buster)
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2013-10-06 12:50  

#2  Obama authorized that? Really?
Look for another new AfriCOM commander soon.
Posted by: Skidmark   2013-10-06 11:10  

#1  Curious they were at the same time. And the Libyan deal - why not last month, or last year?

Prolly a coincidence.
Posted by: Bobby   2013-10-06 10:34  

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