Military strike reported in southern Somali town

Foreign military forces carried out a pre-dawn strike on Saturday in the same southern Somalia village where US Navy SEALS four years ago killed a most-wanted al-Qaida operative, officials said.

The strike was carried out in the town of Barawe in the hours before morning prayers against what one official said was “high-profile” targets. The strike comes exactly two weeks after al-Shabab militants attacked Nairobi’s Westgate Mall, a four-day terrorist assault that killed at least 67 people in neighbouring Kenya. The leader of al-Shabab, Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, also known as Ahmed Godane, claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was in retaliation for Kenya’s military deployment inside Somalia.

A resident of Barawe said by telephone that heavy gunfire woke up residents before dawn prayers. An al-Shabab fighter who gave his name as Abu Mohamed said “foreign” soldiers attacked a house, prompting militants to rush to the scene to capture a foreign soldier. Mohamed said that effort was not successful.

A Somalia intelligence official said the targets were “high-profile” foreigners in the house. The intelligence official said the strike was carried out by a foreign military. Somalia’s nascent army does not have the ability to carry out a stealth night-time strike. A second intelligence official also confirmed the attack. Both insisted on anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

Foreign militaries — often the US but not always — have carried out several strikes inside Somalia in recent years against al-Shabab or al-Qaida leaders. The two groups have formal ties.

In September 2009 a daylight commando raid carried out by Navy SEALs in Barawe killed six people, including Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, one of the most-wanted al-Qaida operatives in the region and an alleged plotter in the 1998 bombings at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 250 people.