The United States Army Special Forces conducted an operation in Awdheegle, a town in the Lower Shabelle region of southern Somalia targeting several commanders of the Al-Qaeda branch in Somalia, Shabaab Mujahideen.
2 Members of the terrorist group were killed. 7 commanders were captured alive by the Special Forces and taken to an unspecified intelligence operations safe house in Southern Somalia. Awdheegle a town of 20,000 inhabitants lies West of the Capital Mogadishu. According to S.I Intelligence, the town serves as the nerve center or the intelligence headquarters of the terrorist group.
Over the past 2 years, Shebaab managed to jam and subsequently down American Military and AMISOM surveillance drones/vehicles. The drones were often captured and displayed by a group of militants which S.I would refer to a special intelligence team with Cyber Capabilities meant to detect, interrupt and down American Military and Intelligence besides AMISOM remote controlled airborne surveillance assets and networks. This makes the area qualify to be classified as an intelligence operations center.
Assessment
Somali Extremists, Al-Shabaab Mujahideen, Killed an American Military Special Forces Team Member in Bar-Sanguni, a farming village in Southern Somalia. Bar-Sanguni was once an Italian Army and Intelligence Teams Enclave when Somalia was a colony.
The US Teams in Somalia may have conducted a retaliatory attack in Awdhegle based on the fact that the area serves as the intelligence nerve center or the Shebaab Intelligence (Amniyaat) headquarters. The attack in Bar-Sanguni is believed to have been planned and polished at a small team of Amniyaat operatives based in Awdhegle. The Americans may have gone for the masterminds with a solo aim, ‘destroy the team of these operatives to avert possible-future attacks”.
