Navy SEALs Somalia raid: Al Shabaab uses children as human shields
- 10 years ago
Originally Published on October 10, 2013
A US special operations mission intended to capture a terror suspect in Somalia ended when al Shabaab fighters began using children as human shields, according to a report by NBC News.
A team of Navy SEALs from Seal Team 6 landed on a beach near the southern Somali town of Barawe.
They took positions inside a compound where an al Shabaab warlord named Ikrima was located.
The Kenyan-born Ikrima, whose real name is Abdikadar Mohamed Abdikadar, was named by a Kenyan government intelligence document as coordinating various planned attacks against the East African nation.
The SEALs were spotted by a lone al Shabaab fighter and came under fire.
The al Shabaab fighters allegedly moved children out of the fortified compound to use them as human shields.
Unable to extract their target, the SEALs opted to withdraw.
"While the operation did not result in Ikrima's capture," read a statement by Pentagon press secretary George Little, "U.S. military personnel conducted the operation with unparalleled precision and demonstrated that the United States can put direct pressure on al Shabaab leadership at any time of our choosing."
The SEALs were members of the unit that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011.
"After the past few years and the bin Laden raid, everyone thinks these operations are easy -- they're not," said a senior military official familiar with the operation, cited by NBC. "The area doesn't have the same support network for us as Afghanistan and Iraq."
A US special operations mission intended to capture a terror suspect in Somalia ended when al Shabaab fighters began using children as human shields, according to a report by NBC News.
A team of Navy SEALs from Seal Team 6 landed on a beach near the southern Somali town of Barawe.
They took positions inside a compound where an al Shabaab warlord named Ikrima was located.
The Kenyan-born Ikrima, whose real name is Abdikadar Mohamed Abdikadar, was named by a Kenyan government intelligence document as coordinating various planned attacks against the East African nation.
The SEALs were spotted by a lone al Shabaab fighter and came under fire.
The al Shabaab fighters allegedly moved children out of the fortified compound to use them as human shields.
Unable to extract their target, the SEALs opted to withdraw.
"While the operation did not result in Ikrima's capture," read a statement by Pentagon press secretary George Little, "U.S. military personnel conducted the operation with unparalleled precision and demonstrated that the United States can put direct pressure on al Shabaab leadership at any time of our choosing."
The SEALs were members of the unit that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011.
"After the past few years and the bin Laden raid, everyone thinks these operations are easy -- they're not," said a senior military official familiar with the operation, cited by NBC. "The area doesn't have the same support network for us as Afghanistan and Iraq."