DHAKA: A US 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, says The Jerusalem Post.

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 US official as saying.

It said US 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 US security official as saying.

BDST: 2102 HRS, OCT 06, 2013
RoR/JCK