WASHINGTON (Reuters) - 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.
"The Barawe raid was planned a week and a half ago," the paper quoted an unnamed U.S. security official as saying.
"It was prompted by the Westgate attack," he added, referring to a militant assault on a Nairobi shopping mall two weeks ago in which at least 67 people were killed.
The Times quoted witnesses as saying that the firefight lasted more than an hour, with helicopters called in for air support.
The Times report quoted a spokesman for al Shabaab as saying that one of its fighters had been killed in an exchange of gunfire but that the group had beaten back the assault.
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.
"The Barawe raid was planned a week and a half ago," the paper quoted an unnamed U.S. security official as saying.
"It was prompted by the Westgate attack," he added, referring to a militant assault on a Nairobi shopping mall two weeks ago in which at least 67 people were killed.
The Times quoted witnesses as saying that the firefight lasted more than an hour, with helicopters called in for air support.
The Times report quoted a spokesman for al Shabaab as saying that one of its fighters had been killed in an exchange of gunfire but that the group had beaten back the assault.
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