NEW YORK - In twin raids, US forces carried out a pre-dawn strike in Somalia on Saturday aimed at capturing a senior leader of the al-Shabaab militant group, while a group of US commandoes in Libya captured a man suspected of taking part in the 1998 American Embassy bombings in east Africa, according to American officials.
The raid in Somalia failed to capture the senior militant and it isn't clear if he was killed, although several al-Shabaab members were killed, according to an official cited in media reports. But the US military, in the Libyan operation with the CIA and FBI, said it had captured Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, a militant known as Abu Anas al-Libi who was on the FBI most wanted list with a $5 million reward.
Although the Obama administration has used deadly force in many of its counterterrorism strikes, Saturday's raids were said to be aimed explicitly at capturing the accused militants.
"I can confirm that yesterday, October 4, US military personnel were involved in a counterterrorism operation against a known al-Shabab terrorist," Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said in a cryptic statement. "We are not prepared to provide additional detail at this time."
The dramatic raids relegated the saturation media coverage of the US government shutdown, now in its sixth day, to a second place.
Al-Libi, the al-Qaeda leader captured in Tripoli, was wanted in connection with the bombings 15 years ago of American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, a US official said. In 2000, he was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that he was involved in planning the embassy attacks.
"As the result of a US counter-terrorism operation, Abu Anas al Liby is currently lawfully detained by the US military in a secure location outside of Libya," Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said in a statement late Saturday.
In Somalia, Navy SEALs carried out the raid against a suspected Shabab leader who is believed to have planned the group's deadly attack last month on a shopping mall in Kenya, US officials said.
They said the Somalia raid involved commandos storming a beachfront house in a town not far from Mogadishu. It remained unclear whether the target of the raid was killed or was even present.
"At this point we can't confirm his status. He may not have been there, or could have been killed or injured," another US official said.ls.
A senior US official said the operation was aimed at capturing a senior Shabab leader. The SEALs broke off the attack "after inflicting some Al Shabab casualties," the official said. He added that the US could not identify the casualties. No US personnel were injured or killed in the raid, the official said.
Officials did not say which leader was the target of the raid. Saturday’s operation appeared to mark the significant US strike in Somalia since the 2009 operation by Navy SEALs that killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a senior al-Qaeda figure who was running the network’s operations in Somalia. The Obama administration considers the Shabab, a militant group that pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda, a growing threat to the US and its allies in Africa.
The group claimed responsibility for the Sept. 21 attack at a Nairobi shopping mall that left almost 70 people dead.
Meanwhile, Libya’s interim government on Sunday demanded an explanation from the US for what it called the “kidnapping” of a Libyan citizen, according to American media reports from Tripoli.
On Saturday, American troops assisted by F.B.I. and C.I.A. agents seized Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, known as Abu Anas al-Liby, a suspected leader of Al Qaeda, on the streets of Tripoli, Libya.
Abu Anas was indicted in 2000 for his role in the 1998 bombings of the United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and had a $5 million bounty on his head.
The raid coincided with a Navy SEAL attack on the seaside villa of an Al Shabaab leader in Somalia. That raid failed to capture the senior Islamist terrorist, nor was it clear if he had been killed - although several Al Shabaab members were, according to an official.
The New York Times said that Abu Anas was considered “a major prize,” and reported that officials said he was alive in American custody.
“While the details about his capture were sketchy, an American official said on Saturday night that it appeared he had been taken peacefully and that he was ‘no longer in Libya,’” the Times reported.