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| Militant base 'attacked from sea' in Somalia | Militant base 'attacked from sea' in Somalia |
| (34 minutes later) | |
| Unidentified foreign forces have launched a night-time raid on a militant base in the south Somali town of Barawe from the sea, reports say. | Unidentified foreign forces have launched a night-time raid on a militant base in the south Somali town of Barawe from the sea, reports say. |
| A spokesman for the al-Shabab Islamist group told Reuters news agency that a fighter had been killed in the raid. | |
| Reports speak of residents in the militant-controlled town being woken by heavy gunfire before dawn prayers. | |
| Al-Shabab claimed responsibility last month for a deadly attack on a Kenyan shopping mall. | |
| At least 67 people were killed after militants stormed the Westgate mall in the capital, Nairobi, on 21 September. | |
| 'Helicopters' | |
| There was no immediate comment on Saturday's alleged attack in Barawe from the Western-backed authorities in Somalia. | |
| According to the Somali news website Midnimo, two helicopters were also involved in the raid. | |
| "Westerners in boats attacked our base at Barawe beach and one was martyred from our side," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, described as al-Shabab's spokesman for military operations, told Reuters by telephone. | |
| Another al-Shabab member, named as Abu Mohamed, told the Associated Press that "foreign" soldiers had attacked a house in Barawe. | |
| Militants rushed to the scene to capture a foreign soldier but were unsuccessful, he added. | |
| Western navies tasked with fighting piracy patrol the seas off Somalia, which has been beset by conflict for more than two decades. | |
| The US military has used drones in Somalia to support the government and African Union forces in their battle against al-Shabab. | |
| France has also intervened militarily on occasion, carrying out an unsuccessful commando raid to free a French intelligence agent in January. Two French commandos were killed and al-Shabab later reported that it had killed the agent. |