The militant group al-Shabab says “white soldiers” arrived by boat at the port of Barawe in Somalia and the rebel repulsed them, losing one fighter, according to a report from the BBC.
No one has admitted to the attack. U.S. and French special forces have carried out raids in Somalia in recent years.
It is not clear whether this incident is linked to last month’s attack in neighboring Kenya, for which al-Shabab has claimed responsibility.
At least 67 people were killed after militants stormed the Westgate shopping center in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Sept. 21.
Signs Point to the United States
According to Al-Jazeera, sources in the Somali government, as well as Western intelligence sources, believed that U.S. forces were involved in the Barawe attack.
Foreign forces landed on the beach at Barawe, about 110 miles south of Mogadishu, and launched an assault that drew gunfire from rebel fighters, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, spokesman for al-Shabab’s military operations, told Reuters.
“The sources say there were some very high-value targets, including the leader of al-Shabab himself, known as Godane,” Peter Greste of Al-Jazeera reported. “We understand that, although the Western sources believe that one of the senior al-Shabab commanders may have been killed, they do understand that Ahmed Godane may have survived.”
Al-Shabab insists there was nobody of any significance in the house at the time of the attack, Greste said.
Western navies routinely patrol the sea off Somalia – mired in conflict for more than two decades – and have in the past launched strikes on land from warships.
Although the United States does not report its activities in Somalia, it has used drones in recent years to kill Somali and foreign al-Shabab fighters, according to the report.
Al-Shabab was driven out of Mogadishu in late 2011 and is struggling to hold on to territory elsewhere in the face of attacks by Kenyan, Ethiopian and African Union forces that are trying to prevent the group from spreading outside of Somalia. Al-Shabab wants to impose its strict version of Sharia, or Islamic law, across the Horn of Africa state.
