"Their mission was to capture him. Once it became clear we were not going to (be) able to take him, the Navy commander made the decision to withdraw," said the official, who has direct knowledge of the entire Somalia operation but declined to be identified publicly.
The official said the SEALs faced heavy opposition and an intense firefight broke out, leading to the withdrawal.
The mission's aim -- to capture Ikrima -- is the reason the team went in rather than using a drone to attack the heavily guarded seaside villa, the official said.
Another U.S. official told CNN the Navy SEALs reported seeing children at the compound, part of the reason the mission was stopped during the firefight.
Amid questions about the aborted mission, the Pentagon is disputing the suggestion that Al-Shabaab drove out the SEALs.
"That's not how it
happened," Pentagon spokesman George Little insisted to CNN. "There was a
firefight, absolutely, and they took every step to avoid civilian
casualties in this case, and that's what our military personnel do. They
weigh these kinds of decisions and they made a prudent decision on the
ground to depart. It was their decision."
Little said earlier that the United States will continue to work with Somalia's government to confront Al-Shabaab.
"While the operation did
not result in Ikrima's capture, U.S. military personnel conducted the
operation with unparalleled precision and demonstrated that the United
States can put direct pressure on Al-Shabaab leadership at any time of
our choosing," he said.
Somalia welcomed the U.S. raid, Somali Deputy Prime Minister Fawzia Yusuf Adam told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Monday.
"We are welcoming more
if this will help us ... get rid of al Qaeda and Al-Shabaab," said Adam,
who is also the country's foreign minister.
It was one of two U.S. military operations in Africa over the weekend targeting what officials called high-value terrorism suspects.
In the other raid,
members of the elite U.S. Army Delta Force captured Abu Anas al Libi, an
al Qaeda operative wanted for his alleged role in the deadly 1998
bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.
Next stop, New York?
The special operations forces took al Libi to a U.S. Navy warship after his capture, a U.S. official said.
The Pentagon said the
U.S. military was holding al Libi in a "secure location" outside Libya.
There, a team of officials from the FBI, the CIA and other intelligence
agencies are grilling him for intelligence on al Qaeda.
His next stop could be
the United States, where authorities have long wanted al Libi to stand
trial in an American court for his alleged role in the embassy bombings
in Kenya and Tanzania that left over 200 dead and thousands wounded.
The Libyan interim
government called the U.S. capture a kidnapping and wants an explanation
from Washington, the country's state news agency reported Sunday.
There's no extradition treaty between Libya and the United States.
U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry disputes that. He described al Libi as a key al Qaeda figure
who is a "legal and an appropriate target."
Kerry said Monday that
al Libi "will now have an opportunity to defend himself and to be
appropriately brought to justice in a court of law."
A federal grand jury in New York has already indicted al Libi for the embassy attacks.
State Department rules out Guantanamo
But trying terrorism suspects on American soil has been a controversial topic in the past.
In 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder said five Guantanamo Bay detainees with alleged ties to the 9/11 attacks would be transferred to New York for trial in civilian court. Later Holder reversed course, announcing that accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others would be tried in a military commission at Guantanamo instead.
Could al Libi face a similar fate?
State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said Monday that there's no chance he could end up at Guantanamo.
"The administration's
position on Guantanamo is clear. Our goal is not to add to the
population, it's to reduce it, which we've done. ... Our policy is not
to send any new detainees to Guantanamo," she said.
Concern grows over terrorism in region
The weekend attacks come
as concern over terrorism in the region is on the rise after last
month's deadly shopping mall attack in Kenya's capital.
Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, which left at least 67 people dead.
A U.S. official said
Monday that the U.S. government is concerned about the al Qaeda-linked
militant group's growing focus on external operations -- including the
possibility of striking U.S. interests in the region.
The Somalia operation was planned before the mall attack, the official said.
Another source
underlined that the raid was not in response to the mall attack, adding
that the United States has been going after Al-Shabaab for some time,
with SEALs and with drones.
President Bashar al-Assad recently gave an interview to Syrian al-Thawra daily. In the interview, President Assad talks about the ongoing conflict in his country as well as the political instability in Egypt. Assad blames both extreme Islam and extreme following of western culture as ideologies that threaten Arab identity.
The following is an excerpt from President Bashar al-Assad of Syria recent interview:
Interviewer: During this difficult time of crisis, it has often been said that Syria can accommodate everyone, but in reality it has not embraced all of its citizens. What has led us to this point?
President al-Assad: First of all, I would like to welcome you in my office. I am particularly pleased that this interview coincides with the 50th anniversary of Al-Thawra newspaper. This is a momentous occasion for every patriotic Syrian irrespective of their political affiliation.
We often view nations as a group of people occupying a certain territory; whereas in fact a nation is about a sense of belonging and of culture which both ultimately form a collective identity. With a strong sense of belonging, we can ensure a united country that includes everyone. When the colonial powers left Syria, it was not to liberate the country but to reoccupy it through other means.
One of their core strategies was to divide and conquer. By division, I do not mean redrawing national borders but rather fragmentation of identity, which is far more dangerous.
When we live in the same territory but have different identities, we are already a divided country because each group isolates itself from the rest. When this happens, it is right to say that the country does not accommodate everyone.
In this context colonialism has been successful in creating separatist groups that consider their ideologies and values as solely and legitimately representing the country and hence rejecting all other groups. This success has not happened overnight, but rather during several stages.
The first of which was the Omayyad dynasty, where identities were tampered with, chasms created and many common elements destroyed resulting in fragmentation and ultimately the collapse of the Omayyad State. The same also applies for the Abbasid caliphate in ancient history and the fall of Palestine in modern history.
The rifts we have witnessed in modern history have come with the emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood and the negative role they have played after the independence of many Arab countries like Syria. They created the first split between Pan-Arabism and Islam, working hard to form a country for Islamists and another for nationalists. These attempts continued when colonist powers in Lebanon attempted to create a country for Muslims and another for Christians. The implications of the Muslim Brotherhood have transpired, the most dangerous of which is the presence of Al Qaeda which was generously supported by the West on the back of the Islamic revolution in Iran. After this revolution, Iran emerged as a firm supporter of the Palestinian cause, the essence of Arab identity. They attempted to incite sectarian strife between Sunnis and Shiites and to damage the relationship between Arabs and Persians. After the 9/11 events and the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, these rifts were extended between the takfiris and all other Muslim sects.
The more schism in a country, the less it is able to accommodate its entire people. On the contrary, Syria is still accommodating to all Syrians due to people’s ability to grasp these realities and reject this strife hence preventing it from materializing. Syria remains for all Syrians as long as we can prevent these pockets of extremisms from spreading.
Interviewer: Mr. President today is the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of Al-Thawra Newspaper. You first stated that what is happening in Syria is not a revolution; certainly you had a conceptual foundation behind these statements. Here let me reference the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, during his first meeting with the opposition delegation in Moscow when they introduced themselves as revolutionaries; he asked them, “If you are revolutionaries representing a revolution, why do you need the outside world?” There is a historical saying: no state in the world can endure a popular revolution. I personally entirely subscribe to this theory. What made you say that it was not a revolution from the inception?
President al-Assad: From a historical perspective, any genuine revolution is purely internal and cannot be linked externally by any means, as manifested by the Russian, French and even the Iranian revolutions. Real revolutions are intrinsic, spontaneous, and are led by intellectual and ideological elites. What occurred in Syria since the outset of the crisis was flagrant external interference. There were attempts to hide this, but it has become absolutely clear. This is evident by the fact that we continuously hear external extrinsic statements regarding what should and should not be done in Syria.
Secondly, the real revolution of 1963 – which your newspaper is named after – was a revolution that empowered the country, society and human values. It promoted science and knowledge by building thousands of schools, it brought light to the Urban and rural areas of Syria by building electricity lines and networks, it strengthened the economy by providing job opportunities according to competencies. It supported the wider foundations of society including farmers, labourers and skilled-workers. The revolution at the time built an army indoctrinated in national values that fought the fiercest of battles, it stood unwavering in those difficult circumstances and it won in the 1973 war. We are now perhaps enduring the most challenging circumstances in which the army has shown that its revolutionary foundations and ideological values are as strong as ever.
Revolutions are about building countries and societies, not about destroying them; so how can we call what is happening in Syria a revolution? Attempts to package the events on the ground as a part of a revolution have been futile from the beginning.
U.S. Navy SEAL Team Six pulled out during a raid in Somalia to capture suspected Al-Shabaab leader Ikrima when it became clear that he couldn't be taken alive, a senior U.S. official told CNN.
"Their mission was to
capture him. Once it became clear we were not going to (be) able to take
him, the Navy commander made the decision to withdraw," said the
official, who has direct knowledge of the entire Somalia operation but
declined to be identified publicly.
The official said the SEALs faced heavy opposition and an intense firefight broke out, leading to the withdrawal.
The mission's aim -- to
capture Ikrima -- is the reason the team went in rather than using a
drone to attack the heavily guarded seaside villa, the official said.
Another U.S. official
told CNN the Navy SEALs reported seeing children at the compound, part
of the reason the mission was stopped during the firefight.U.S. Navy SEAL Team Six pulled out during a raid in Somalia to capture suspected Al-Shabaab leader Ikrima when it became clear that he couldn't be taken alive, a senior U.S. official told CNN.
"Their mission was to
capture him. Once it became clear we were not going to (be) able to take
him, the Navy commander made the decision to withdraw," said the
official, who has direct knowledge of the entire Somalia operation but
declined to be identified publicly.
The official said the SEALs faced heavy opposition and an intense firefight broke out, leading to the withdrawal.
The mission's aim -- to
capture Ikrima -- is the reason the team went in rather than using a
drone to attack the heavily guarded seaside villa, the official said.
Another U.S. official
told CNN the Navy SEALs reported seeing children at the compound, part
of the reason the mission was stopped during the firefight.
By Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, South-SouthMORE than meet the eyes: When Delta kidnap kingpin, Kelvin Oniarah, who was wanted then by both the police and army, stormed his country home, Kokori in Ethiope East Local Government Area on Tuesday, September 17, to issue his 60-day ultimatum to government, it is obvious that what transpired was a serious security breach.
Many people suspected that such impunity could not have occurred without the collusion of security operatives on ground, particularly as Kelvin’s new group, Movement for the Liberation of Urhobo People, LIMUP, allegedly fired up to 50 gun shots intermittently into the air.
Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba, who doubted the bravado after he was told by the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, in the area, said that nothing like that happened, now knows better. Vanguard gathered on good authority that the DPO had been redeployed after the state Command discovered that he misled his boss. Unmistakably, there is more than meet the eyes in the affair as detachment of soldiers and policemen were said to be on ground in the area.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/10/confusion-security-circle-kelvins-camp/#sthash.YAxSi8A3.dpufBy Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, South-South
MORE than meet the eyes: When Delta kidnap kingpin, Kelvin Oniarah, who was wanted then by both the police and army, stormed his country home, Kokori in Ethiope East Local Government Area on Tuesday, September 17, to issue his 60-day ultimatum to government, it is obvious that what transpired was a serious security breach.
Many people suspected that such impunity could not have occurred without the collusion of security operatives on ground, particularly as Kelvin’s new group, Movement for the Liberation of Urhobo People, LIMUP, allegedly fired up to 50 gun shots intermittently into the air.
Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba, who doubted the bravado after he was told by the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, in the area, said that nothing like that happened, now knows better. Vanguard gathered on good authority that the DPO had been redeployed after the state Command discovered that he misled his boss. Unmistakably, there is more than meet the eyes in the affair as detachment of soldiers and policemen were said to be on ground in the area.
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