One of al-Qaeda's top operatives in Africa is dead after a raid by U.S. special operations forces inside Somalia.
The Associated Press, quoting a security official from Somalia's transitional government, reports that Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan was killed in a helicopter assault near the insurgent-held town of Barawe, about 150 miles south of Mogadishu. Voice of America, citing U.S. officials, says the raid was staged by U.S. commandos.
Nabhan was wanted by the FBI in connection with the 2002 terror attacks in Mombasa, Kenya. The attacks targeted a popular resort area on the Kenyan coast; they included the car bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel and an unsuccessful surface-to-air missile attack against a civilian airliner.
Over the past few years, the United States has waged a quiet campaign against al-Qaeda in Somalia. It's a war that rarely makes headlines: Occasionally the U.S. military will unleash a cruise missile or send an AC-130 gunship inside Somalia, but details are often sketchy. Last March, Nabhan was reportedly the target of a U.S. Tomahawk missile strike launched by a Navy submarine; Aden Hashi Ayro, another militant leader, was killed in a U.S. airstrike a couple of months later.
The helicopter attack suggests a possible shift in approach. The New York Times quotes a U.S. adviser who said the risky raid may, in part, have reflected a desire to avoid potential civilian casualties. But speed was also a factor: An unnamed U.S. military official told the Times that Nabhan had been under surveillance for a long time, with operators waiting for the right moment to strike.
Somalia's anarchy makes it extremely difficult to get the full picture. Somalia's extremely weak -- but internationally recognized -- transitional government is locked in a death match with al-Shabab, an Islamic militant group with ties to al-Qaeda. As our own David Axe has reported, al-Shabab has even managed to attract followers from the Somali diaspora in the United States, including Somali-born Shirwa Ahmed, a former truck driver and longtime resident of Minnesota who was recruited to carry out a suicide bomb attack in northern Somalia last year.
[IMAGES: FBI]
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