The 2013 raid on Baraawe was a military operation by

SEAL Team Six The Naval Special Warfare Development Group (NSWDG), abbreviated as DEVGRU ("Development Group") and commonly known as SEAL Team Six, is the United States Navy component of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). The unit is often referre ...

to capture or kill Abdikadar Mohamed Abdikadar "Ikrima", a senior member of the Al-Shabaab insurgent group. It was launched in the southern town of

Barawa Barawa ( so, Baraawe, Maay Maay, Maay: ''Barawy'', ar, ﺑﺮﺍﻭة ''Barāwa''), also known as Barawe and Brava, is the capital city, capital of the South West State of Somalia, South West State of Somalia.Pelizzari, Elisa. "Guerre civile et ...

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

in October 2013.

Operation

On 5 October 2013, Al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab announced that Western naval forces had launched an assault on a house in the insurgent stronghold of

Barawe Barawa ( so, Baraawe, Maay: ''Barawy'', ar, ﺑﺮﺍﻭة ''Barāwa''), also known as Barawe and Brava, is the capital of the South West State of Somalia.Pelizzari, Elisa. "Guerre civile et question de genre en Somalie. Les événements et l ...

, a town situated around south of

Mogadishu Mogadishu (, also ; so, Muqdisho or ; ar, مقديشو ; it, Mogadiscio ), locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and List of cities in Somalia by population, most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port ...

. He stated that the foreign soldiers had silencer guns, and exchanged gunfire and grenades with the militants before being driven away. Musab later asserted that the attack was launched by the UK SAS unit as well as

Turkish special forces The Special Forces Command ( tr, Özel Kuvvetler Komutanlığı — OKK) is a division of the Turkish Armed Forces, initially established as a brigade in 14 April 1992, operating directly under the Turkish General Staff of the Republic of Turkey, ...

, and that one British commander was killed during the raid and four other SAS operatives were fatally wounded. Additionally, a Somali intelligence official indicated that a Chechen Al-Shabaab leader was the target of the mission, and that the

insurgent An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric warfare, asymmetric na ...

commander was wounded during the offensive and one of his guards was killed. Somali police stated that the operation had the approval of the

Somali government The Government of Somalia (GS) ( so, Dowladda Soomaaliya, ar, حكومة الصومال الاتحادية) is the internationally recognised government of Somalia, and the first attempt to create a central government in Somalia since the colla ...

, and that seven individuals were killed during the mission. Both

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

and

EU Navfor The European Union (EU) has undertaken a number of overseas missions and operations, drawing on civilian and military capabilities, in several countries across three continents (Europe, Africa and Asia), as part of its Common Security and Defen ...

denied involvement in the raid, as did a Turkish Foreign Ministry representative. A spokeswoman for the British Defence Ministry also said that she and her colleagues were not aware of any British involvement in the operation. According to another Somali intelligence official, the target of the raid was Al-Shabaab leader

Ahmed Godane Ahmed Abdi Godane ( so, Axmed Cabdi Godane; ar, أحمد عبدي جودان; 10 July 1977 – 1 September 2014), also known as Mukhtar Abu Zubair, was the Emir (leader) of Al-Shabaab, an Islamist group based in Somalia with ties to Al Qaeda. ...

(Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr). A senior US military representative also indicated that

, the special operations unit responsible for killing

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

in 2011, launched the offensive but later abandoned the mission after coming under more fire than expected. Speaking about the aborted mission,

US Secretary of State The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...

said that the insurgents "can run but they can't hide". A spokesman for the

Pentagon In geometry, a pentagon (from the Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simpl ...

likewise asserted that

US soldiers The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

had been involved in a counter-terrorism mission in Somalia against a known Al-Shabaab member, but did not elaborate. He also indicated that there were no US fatalities during the operation. US officials later confirmed that the target of the raid was Al-Shabaab commander Abdikadar Mohamed Abdikadar "Ikrima".

References

{{War in Somalia (2009–) Somali Civil War (2009–present) Al-Shabaab (militant group) Battles involving the United States 2013 in Somalia October 2013 events in Africa 21st-century military history of the United States