US forces assisted Somali commandos in killing several members of the Al Shabab militant group in an attack last week, a US military spokesman said Tuesday, but it was not clear whether any high-level operatives had been killed.
The raid took place Aug. 10, when a contingent of elite US troops acting as military advisers accompanied Somali forces in an assault on an Al Shabab checkpoint in Saakow, a remote outpost in southern Somalia that has become a notorious hideout for the militants.
As the Somali-led force approached the checkpoint, the militants opened fire, setting off a gun battle, said Lieutenant Commander Anthony Falvo, a spokesman for the US military’s Africa Command. Three Al Shabab militants were killed; no US soldiers were hurt.
US forces were armed but did not participate in the firefight, Falvo said.
Al Shabab, a Somali militant organization that has sworn allegiance to Al Qaeda, runs several illegal checkpoints in Saakow, where it raises funds by taxing residents and merchants for moving goods through the area.
Rumors have been circulating in Nairobi that Al Shabab’s leader, Abu Ubaidah, was killed in a US strike in Saakow last week. But Falvo said that the US military was assessing the results from the operation, and that it was too early to determine whether any senior Al Shabab commanders had been killed.
The Somali media reported that a second raid was conducted in Saakow on Saturday.
Somalia remains in a dangerous state of limbo, with a weak central government and hundreds if not thousands of Al Shabab fighters operating across the country.
The nation, one of the world’s poorest, is scheduled to hold an election this year to choose its parliament and president, but security fears and the decrepit state of public institutions mean that citizens will not vote directly. Instead, clan elders will select delegates, who will then choose the politicians.
bostonglobe.com
