MOGADISHU: Somalia’s Al-Shabab fighters on Tuesday vowed to avenge the death of a top regional Al-Qaeda leader during a lightning US military operation on Somali territory.
According to US officials and Western security sources, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan citizen wanted by the FBI over the 2002 anti-Israel attacks in Mombasa, was killed in an airborne raid in southern Somalia on Monday.
The regional governor said Tuesday that three Somali civilians had also been killed in the US attack.
The rare operation, which witnesses said involved several helicopters, dealt a blow to Al-Qaeda’s operations in East Africa but Al-Shabab pledged to strike back. “Muslims will retaliate against this unprovoked attack,” a top Al-Shabab leader said.
The Al-Shabab official refused to elaborate on the circumstances of the operation, in which several other militants are believed to have been killed.
Meanwhile, the governor of the Lower Shabelle region where the attack happened told a press conference in Mogadishu that three civilians were also killed in the operation, the details of which remain sketchy.
“There were casualties in the attack carried out by the Americans in the region: two civilians in a nearby vehicle and a woman on the scene of the attack. Five other civilians were also wounded,” Abdulkadir Sheikh Mohamed said.
