Western forces raid Somali base and kill fighter

Mogadishu: Somali Al Shabab militants said on Saturday British and Turkish special forces had raided a coastal town overnight, killing a rebel fighter, but that a British officer had also been killed and others wounded.

A British Defence Ministry spokeswoman said: “We are not aware of any British involvement in this at all.” A Turkish Foreign Ministry official denied any Turkish part in such an action.

Al Shabab said the target of the raid on its stronghold in the small southern coastal town of Barawe was a Chechen commander. He had been wounded and his guard killed.

It was not clear whether the assault was related to the attack on a Kenyan mall two weeks ago, which the Al Qaida-linked group said it carried out and which killed at least 67. Nor was there any independent confirmation of what forces were involved.

Both US and French forces have carried out similar raids in the past. The French army denied involvement and the Pentagon declined to comment.

Al Shabab leader Ahmad Godane, also known as Mukhtar Abu Al Zubair, has described the mall attack as retaliation for Kenya’s incursion in October 2011 into southern Somalia to crush the insurgents. It has raised concern in the West over the operations of Al Shabab in the region.

Shaikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, spokesman for Al Shabab’s military operations, told Reuters foreign forces had landed on the beach at Barawe, about 180km south of Mogadishu, and launched an assault at dawn that drew gunfire from rebel fighters in one of the militia’s coastal bases.

He later said the attack was carried out by Britain’s SAS unit and Turkish special forces, and that the British commander was killed during the raid and four other SAS soldiers were critically wounded. A Turkish soldier was also wounded, he added.

Western navies patrol the sea off Somalia, mired in conflict for more than two decades, and have in the past launched strikes on land from warships. Neither Turkish nor British forces have any past record of raids in the area.

Barawe is fully controlled by the Islamist militia with almost no government presence.

Somali security officials gave conflicting accounts.