'Ikrima,' Target of Failed US Raid, Plotted UN Attack

Al-Shabab leader tied to 1998 US embassy attack: White House source
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 7, 2013 7:02 AM CDT
Updated Oct 7, 2013 8:43 AM CDT
Target of Failed Somali Raid: 'Ikrima'
In this Dec. 8, 2008 file photo, armed al-Shabab fighters are seen just outside Mogadishu.   (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh, File)

In this weekend's raid in Somalia, Navy SEALs were after an al-Shabab leader named Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulkadir, who had plotted foiled attacks targeting Kenya's parliament and the UN office in Nairobi, according to a Kenyan intelligence document obtained by the AP. Abdulkadir, who is also known as Ikrima, is a Kenyan of Somali origin, CNN reports. He is also reportedly linked to a pair of al-Qaeda figures involved in the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, as well as attacks four years later in the Kenyan city of Mombasa.

Navy SEAL Team Six members arrived for Saturday's raid by sea, but when they ran into extensive gunfire, they made what one official calls a "prudent decision" to leave—though they didn't know whether Abdulkadir had survived. None of the SEALs were injured during the attack on the home of al-Shabab leader Mukhtar Abu Zubayr; al-Shabab says one of its fighters was killed in the raid, says a former UN official. (More Somalia stories.)

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