U.S. troops take action on militants in Somalia

U.S. military forces launched an operation in Somalia on Monday against the Qaida-linked militant network al- Shabab‚ defense officials said.

Rear Adm. John F. Kirby‚ the Pentagon press secretary‚ said that officials were still “assessing the results of the operation and would provide additional information as and when appropriate.”

Kirby declined to go into further detail about the operation‚ which was first reported by CNN.

A senior U.S. official‚ who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the operation‚ said it had been carried out with Somali partners against “a senior Shabab operative.”

The Pentagon and the State Department have been supporting a 22‚000-member African force that has driven the Shabab from their former strongholds in Mogadishu‚ the capital‚ and other urban centers‚ and continues to battle the extremists in their mountain and desert redoubts.

The United States has a total of about 100 Special Operations forces in different parts of the country‚ both in training-advisory and operational roles. Most‚ if not all‚ of those forces are Navy SEALs.

Officials did not say where Monday’s operation occurred or how it was carried out. But last October‚ Navy SEALs descended on the port town of Baraawe‚ which is a Shabab stronghold.

Their target was a Kenyan of Somali origin known as Ikrimah‚ who was one of the Shabab’s top planners of attacks outside Somalia‚ officials said.

But instead of slipping away with the man they had come to capture‚ the SEALs found themselves under heavy fire as they approached a villa. They retreated after inflicting casualties on the Shabab defenders.

That raid occurred less than two weeks after Shabab militants slaughtered more than 60 people at a shopping mall in Nairobi‚ Kenya. Although Ikrimah had not been tied directly to the Nairobi assault‚ fears of a similar attack against Western targets broke a deadlock among officials in Washington over whether to conduct the raid.

© 2014 New York Times News Service

02-09-2014

Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt