The Navy SEALs Raid on an al-Shabab Leader Didn't Go as Planned

A group of Navy SEALs carried out a raid on a house in Baraawe, Somalia with the intention of killing or seizing an unidentified al-Shabab leader as a response to the attack on a Nairobi mall. Unfortunately U.S. offiicals aren't sure whether or not the attack succeeded. The New York Times reports Navy SEALs descended on the house, a known Shabab hangout, just before dawn Saturday morning, targeting one of the group's leaders. U.S. officials initially said they seized their target after an hour long firefight, but now they've changed their story: 

The Shabab leader was believed to have been killed in the firefight, but the SEALS were forced to withdraw before that could be confirmed, a senior American official said. Such operations by American forces are rare because they carry a high risk, and indicate that the target was considered a high priority. Baraawe, a small port town south of Mogadishu, the Somali capital, is known as a gathering place for the Shabab’s foreign fighters.

Officials from the U.S. and Kenya confirmed the raid took place. Al Shabab confirmed one member was killed but didn't say who. The group claimed their fighters "had beaten back the assault," according to the Times. So the operation wasn't the smashing success the SEALs were hoping for.

FBI officials have been aiding local authorities ever since al-Shabab militants attacked Nairobi's Westgate mall, killing 67 people and engaging in a multiple day standoff with the Kenyan military. The attack on the mall was the largest operation carried out by the al-Qaeda linked group, and the possibility of a similar attack on American soil worried the intelligence community. The Baraawe raid "was prompted by the Westgate attack," an American security official told the Times.

Earlier Saturday, Kenya offered new details about the raid on the Nairobi mall, including a revised estimate on the number of militants who carried out the attack. The Kenyan military identified four Shabab militants killed during the attack: Abu Baara al-Sudani, Omar Nabhan, Khattab al-Kene and Umayr. They now believe the group who attacked the mall consisted of about four to six people, contrary to earlier estimates of around 10 to 15 people. The military also said the "white widow," a British woman named Samantha Lewthwaite who joined al-Shabab,