US forces have conducted two separate raids in Africa -- one on the Al Shabaab militant group in Somalia linked to last month’s Kenya mall attack that killed more than 60 people, and the other to capture a Libyan Al Qaeda leader wanted for his role in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa, Fox News can confirm.
In Somalia, the strike on Al Shabaab was carried out in the early hours before morning prayers in the seaside town of Barawe.
A resident said by telephone that heavy gunfire woke up residents before dawn prayers. The raid was carried out by US Navy SEALs, who came ashore and killed at least one individual at a villa where multiple high level Al Shabaab high level targets were supposed to be located.
The targets were specifically wanted in connection with the Kenyan Mall attack that left dozens dead. The leader of Al Shabaab, Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, also known as Ahmed Godane, had claimed responsibility for the shopping mall attack in Nairobi.
A shootout ensued when SEALs entered the Somali villa and the SEALs were unable to bring the body with them. A senior U.S. official told Fox News that no U.S. personnel were injured in the operation.
Pentagon press secretary George Little confirmed the raid, saying: "I can confirm that yesterday, October 4, U.S. military personnel were involved in a counter terrorism operation against a known Al Shabaab terrorist. We are not prepared to provide additional detail at this time."
Foreign militaries -- often the U.S. but not always -- have carried out several strikes inside Somalia in recent years against Al Shabaab or Al Qaeda leaders, as well as criminal kidnappers.
Meanwhile, in Libya, just hours after the operation in Somalia, U.S. forces captured a high ranking Al Qaeda leader. The secret operation occurred in Tripoli, where an elite team of Special Operators swooped in and captured alive Abu Anas Al Liby -- the Al Qaeda leader wanted for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
Al Liby is currently in US custody and sources told Fox News that he will be read his rights by an elite FBI unit that was sent out for that purpose. US officials say that the Justice Department plans to prosecute him in a US court,
The U.S. official said there were no U.S. casualties in the operation. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.
Al Liby is on the FBI's most-wanted list with a $5 million bounty on his head. He was indicted by a federal court in the Southern District of New York, for his alleged role in the bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, on August 7, 1998, that killed more than 250 people.
He is believed to have spent time in Sudan where Usama bin Laden was based in the early 1990s. After bin Laden was forced to leave Sudan, Al Liby turned up in Britain in 1995 where he was granted political asylum in Britain under unclear circumstances and lived in Manchester. He apparently fled Britain in 2000 when his name was added to the FBI's most wanted list.
