US Special Forces Conduct Raids in Libya an Somalia, Didnt Use Drones

Sounds like we had two special forces operations go down yesterday.
Says we outright snatched Al-Libi off a street corner in Tripoli. he played a big role in the 1998 embassy bombings and is
Thought to be the original facilitator for al Qaeda on Libya.
Special forces also conducted a pre dawn raid on a Somalian town that al shabab runs. I imagine al shabab will be on our radar know that they have targeted westerners twice in the last month.
Thy are saying a firefight  erupted and the
High value target got away. Sucks buy at least we are trying

http://news.yahoo.com/us-forces-conduct-twin-raids-libya-somalia-142728041--politics.html

Two raids against Al Qaeda-linked targets in Africa Saturday raise questions about the drone-strike campaign that has, until now, largely defined President Obama's response to terrorist threats against America and its interests abroad.

In Libya, American commandos seized Anu Abas al-Liby, who has been linked to the bombing of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. In Somalia, Navy SEALs attacked the house of an Al Shabab militant thought to be connected to the shopping mall massacre in Kenya last month.

Mr. Liby was surrounded outside his house and taken captive in a daring operation in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, according to the Associated Press. It remains unclear exactly who the SEALs were targeting in Somalia, but media reports suggest the raid failed.

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The operations highlight evolving trends in global terrorism. The threat is becoming more diffuse, marked by a broader footprint but less ability to project force far beyond terrorists' local strongholds, according to some experts. In this more-decentralized landscape, Africa is a focal point along with Yemen and Pakistan.

Moreover, in another emerging trend, neither operation Saturday appeared to involve drone strikes.

Obama signaled a policy shift on drone strikes in May. To that point, drone strikes had been the Obama administration's central tool in fighting terrorism – allowing the US to kill terrorist suspects abroad without risking personnel. In 2010, for example, the US launched 117 drone strikes in Pakistan alone, according to data from Long War Journal.

But the tactic bred deep resentment abroad, and critics said it was counterproductive because terrorists could use that anger as a recruiting tool. Obama acknowledged these concerns in May.

"To say a military tactic is legal, or even effective, is not to say it is wise or moral in every instance," he said in a speech at the National Defense University. "For the same human progress that gives us the technology to strike half a world away also demands the discipline to constrain that power – or risk abusing it."

Statistics suggest Obama was already reining in the drone campaign. As of May, drone strikes in Pakistan were at 46, while strikes in Yemen had fallen from 42 in 2012 to 10 through the first five months of 2013.

The question, then, has been: When will the Obama administration approve drone strikes?

One clear instance was the reported terrorist threat in August that resulted in the temporary closure of more than a dozen US embassies in the Middle East. Those closures were accompanied by a flurry of drone strikes in Yemen – six in 10 days.

But the decision not to use drones to kill suspected terrorists in Libya and Somalia Saturday could offer further insight into Obama administration policy.

Of course, numerous factors could have come into play: perhaps US counterterrorism officials wanted to take the two men into custody for intelligence reasons, or perhaps drone strikes would have carried a high risk of civilian deaths.

Yet early reports suggest that both operations were dramatic and involved risk to American commandos – the sorts of operations that, in the past, might have been entrusted to drones, generally speaking.

A senior American official told The New York Times that Libyan officials had been told of the operation; the Libyan government denied having any foreknowledge. The AP account cites Liby's brother saying Liby "was parking outside his house early Saturday after dawn prayers when three vehicles encircled him, smashed the car's window and seized his gun before grabbing him and taking him away. The brother said [Liby's] wife saw the kidnapping from her window and described the abductors as foreign-looking armed 'commandos.' "

Meanwhile, in Somalia, Navy SEALs came ashore from the Indian Ocean before sunrise, according to reports. They abandoned the mission in the face of stiff resistance, according to AP.

Al Qaeda's affiliate in East Africa claimed it repelled a nighttime raid by Western special operations forces in the southern Somali coastal town of Barawe. The location of the purported raid is the same town where a top al Qaeda and Shabaab commander was killed by US special operations forces four years ago.

"Local witnesses reported on VOA Somali Service that unidentified foreign troops 'came from the coast with boats and helicopters' and raided a house in Barawe around 2am local time Saturday morning," according to Garowe Online.

Shabaab's military spokesman, Sheikh Abdulaziz Abu Musab, confirmed the report and said that his fighters "repelled" the attack.

"We fought back against the white infidel soldiers with bombs and bullets, and they ran back to their boats," he said according to Garowe Online. "One member of Al Shabaab was killed and the white infidel soldiers failed their mission. We found blood and equipment near the coast in the morning."

Fighting between Shabaab forces and the unidentified Western troops lasted for more than an hour, Abu Musab claimed.

US Navy SEALs carried out the raid in Barawe which targets a senior Shabaab commander, according to The New York Times. It is unclear if the commander was killed in the raid. The Department of Defense's spokesman confirmed the raid was carried out but did not provide details.

"This operation was aimed at capturing a high value al-Shabaab terrorist leader," an unnamed Department of Defense official said on background. "No US personnel were injured or killed. US personnel took all necessary precautions to avoid civilian casualties in this operation and disengaged after inflicting some al Shabaab casualties. We are not in a position to identify those casualties."

Barawe, which is halfway between Kismayo and Marka, is a known command and control hub for Shabaab. The coastal town is fully under the control of Shabaab, despite an offensive that was launched by Somali and African Union forces more than two years ago. Kenyan forces attacked Shabaab forces from the south and took control of Kismayo, but halted their advance after taking the southern city. Shabaab still controls much of the rural areas of Somalia as well as several smaller towns.

US and French special operations forces are known to have operated in Somalia in the past. In one of the two most high-profile raids, US special operations forces killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in Barawe in September 2009. Nabhan was one of the most sought out al Qaeda operatives in Africa. He was wanted for involvement in al Qaeda's 1998 suicide attacks against US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He served as a top leader in both Shabaab and Al Qaeda East Africa, and also was instrumental in facilitating the official merger between al Qaeda and Shabaab.

Most recently, in January 2013, French commandos launched a failed raid in the town of Bula Marer to free a French intelligence official who was captured by Shabaab in 2009. Shabaab fighters repelled the attack and captured a French commando, who later died in custody. Shabaab released photographs of the captured soldier and weapons and gear seized during the raid, and then executed the French intelligence official.

The US has also conducted several air strikes and naval bombardments against Shabaab in the past. In one such attack, Sheikh Aden Hashi Ayro, the military commander of Shabaab, was killed during a US airstrike in May 2008.

Today's reported raid took place just two weeks after Shabaab forces launched a deadly, Mumbai-like raid on an upscale mall in Nairobi, Kenya, that resulted in the deaths of more than 65 civilians, including Europeans and Americans. Shabaab assault teams executed civilians and controlled the mall for 80 hours before explosions led to the collapse of a section of the four-story mall, which ended the siege.



Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/10/shabaab_claims_it_re.php#ixzz2gzd219en