Al-Shabab blames Turkey and UK for raid
Somali armed group say “heavy losses” inflicted on “Western forces” who attacked base in Barawe, a coastal town.
“Western forces” attacked an al-Shabab base in Barawe a town on the Somali coast, Somali intelligence officials say.
Abdul Aziz Abu Musab, Al-Shabab spokesman, told Al Jazeera on Saturday it was an assault by British and Turkish special forces, who arrived by sea and that one of their fighters was killed.
Both the British and the Turkish governments have denied any involvement.
A summary of the interview follows:
On what happened.
Barawe, which is under the control of al-Shabab, was attacked last night by white Western forces. They targeted a house on the beach. They came from the sea but our forces were ready and we started shooting at them. There was heavy fighting that lasted for one hour and a half hours. When they realised they had failed, they fled towards the sea and took fast boats that were waiting for them. As I said, they were white Western forces. After investigation we can confirm they were British and Turkish. The British were leading and the Turkish were supporting them. We have inflicted heavy losses on them.
On losses/deaths and injuries
We have confirmed that we injured five of them and killed one. The one who died was British. Four of the injured were British and one was Turkish. Only one of our fighters was killed.
On evidence
We knew that they were planning to attack one of the areas under al-Shabab control. There had been movements on sea and land, and we were aware of them. We were ready for such a confrontation and that is why they failed last night.