Whatever happened appears to be over:
Islamist fighters in southern Somalia say Western forces have launched a night-time raid on one of their bases.
The militant group al-Shebab told the BBC "white soldiers" had arrived by boat at the port of Barawe and rebels had repulsed them, losing a fighter.
Could be French or American. We're nearby in Djibouti. Or it could be British to support the Kenyans after the mall atrocity. It could even be private contractors (ex-sepcial forces) working for the Kenyans who are fighting back, I suppose.
Locals say the troops assaulted a building and another source said the targets were foreign jihadis.
It must have been an attempt to seize somebody. Otherwise, I'd think we'd have used missiles from ships or drones to do the job.
No word on whether the attempted capture was successful.
UPDATE: So it was a Navy SEAL kill mission?
A U.S. Navy SEAL team is believed to have killed a senior leader of the al Shabaab militant group in a raid on his seaside villa in Somalia on Saturday in response to a deadly attack on a Nairobi shopping mall last month, the New York Times reported.
The unidentified target was believed to have been killed in a predawn firefight after the SEAL team landed in the Somali town of Barawe by sea, but the commandos were forced to withdraw before that could be confirmed, a report on the newspaper's website quoted a senior U.S. official as saying.
It said U.S. officials initially reported that the commandos had seized the Shabaab leader, but later backed off that account.
I don't get why missiles wouldn't be used for a kill mission. Yet it seems that we really were on a capture mission that may have ended up killing the terrorist leader when something went wrong.
But killing a terrorist isn't the worst failure to have, eh?
UPDATE: Ah, we conducted twin missions--one in Libya by Delta Force operators (the Army's most elite special forces) and the one in Somalia by Navy SEALs:
U.S. special forces captured a Libyan al-Qaida leader linked to the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa, seizing him outside his Tripoli home and whisking him out the country. A Navy SEAL team that swam ashore hours earlier in Somalia engaged in a fierce firefight but did not apprehend a terrorist suspected in the recent Kenyan mall siege.
The US released a statement on the Libya operation, saying, in part:
On Oct.5, the Department of Defense, acting under military authorities, conducted an operation to apprehend longtime Al Qaeda member Abu Anas al Libi in Libya. He is currently lawfully detained under the law of war in a secure location outside of Libya.
Clearly, the Somalia operation was a capture mission. Pity it did not succeed. Perhaps Plan B is a missile.
UPDATE: Secretary of Defense Hagel's statement on the operations:
Over the weekend, U.S. military personnel conducted targeted operations in Libya and Somalia to bring international terrorists to justice. I want to commend all of the service members who were involved in the planning and execution of these two operations, which demonstrate the unparalleled precision, global reach, and capabilities of the United States military.
As a result of the Libya operation, one of the world’s most wanted terrorists was captured and is now in U.S. custody. Abu Anas al Libi was designated as a global terrorist by Executive Order, was a subject of the U.S. Rewards for Justice Program, and is on the UN Al Qaeda sanctions list. He was also indicted for his alleged role in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, and other plots to conduct attacks against U.S. interests.
These operations in Libya and Somalia send a strong message to the world that the United States will spare no effort to hold terrorists accountable, no matter where they hide or how long they evade justice. We will continue to maintain relentless pressure on terrorist groups that threaten our people or our interests, and we will conduct direct action against them, if necessary, that is consistent with our laws and our values.
It's always good to keep the terrorists worried about what we can do to them rather than let them focus on killing us.
