US Commandos raids in Libya and Somalia

I was going to put this in Hangout but figured that with controversy regarding US actions abroad, and lets face it someone would politicize it, better put this here.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/...enior-al-qaeda-official?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=1

US commandos raid terrorist hideouts in Libya, Somalia, capture senior al Qaeda official

U.S. commandos launched daring twin raids in Libya and Somalia on Saturday, capturing a senior al Qaeda official who allegedly planned 1998 embassy attacks in Kenya and Tanzania, sources told NBC News.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, initially reported that a “high-level target” also had been apprehended in the Somalia raid, but they later said it was unclear if that was the case.

But they said that U.S. Special Operations forces had captured Anas al Libi, a longtime al Qaeda member, in a pre-dawn raid near Tripoli, Libya. Al Libi, whose real name is Nazih Abdul-Hamed Nabih al-Ruqai'I, has been wanted for more than a decade by the U.S. and has a $5 million reward on his head.

Al Libi has been a member of al Qaeda since at least 1994 and was a confidante of Osama bin Laden. He also is a computer expert for the group and is believed to be one of the masterminds of the 1998 U.S. Embassy attacks in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 12 Americans and more than 220 Kenyans. He has been indicted in New York in connection with the attacks and could ultimately be brought to the U.S. to stand trial.

The indictment alleges that al Libi and other members of al Qaeda discussed an attack against the embassy in Nairobi in late 1993. He is alleged to have conducted visual and photographic surveillance of the embassy that year. He is also accused of plotting in 1994 for attacks against the building then housing the U.S. Agency for International Development in Nairobi and against British, French and Israeli targets in Nairobi.

According to an FBI listing of most wanted terrorists, al-Libi was born in Tripoli and used birthdates of March 30, 1964, and May 14, 1964. He had lived in Britain, where he had political asylum, and was arrested there in 1999 – then freed because no evidence could be found to hold him, according to a report in the Telegraph newspaper.

In 2002, there were reports that he had been killed in Afghanistan or arrested by the Sudanese government, but U.S. officials denied those reports.

CNN reported last fall that Western intelligence sources said he had returned to Tripoli from Iran, where he had lived for years.

In discussing the Somalia raid, the sources initially declined to identify the target of the operation, but later acknowledged that the U.S. forces were looking for the leader of al Shabaab, Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, also known as Ahmed Godane, but did not capture him. There were conflicting reports on whether any al Shabaab leaders were killed in the operation.

Early reports from the region said there was heavy gunfire during an assault by foreign forces on a building or complex in the southern Somali town of Barawe.

Al Shabaab, which is aligned with al Qaeda and based in Somalia, had claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack on the Westgate shopping mall that killed dozens of people in Nairobi, Kenya, two weeks ago.

U.S. Special Operations forces previously staged at least one other raid near Barawe.

On Sept. 14, 2009, a helicopter commando assault near the town killed alleged al-Qaida member Saleh Ali Nabhan, also suspected in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2002 bombing of a resort hotel in Mombasa, Kenya.

He was killed when at least one U.S. Special Operations helicopter opened fire on a suspected al-Qaida convoy south of Mogadishu.

Ali Nabhan was also suspected of operating al-Qaida training camps inside Somalia, NBC News reported at the time.