Tech. Sgt. Christopher Ruano/ AP
- A CIA officer died last month following an unsuccessful raid in Somalia on the Al Qaeda off-shoot, Al Shabaab.
- The raid was targeting Al Shabaab insurgents, one of whom was an expert bomb maker and “specially designated global terrorist.”
- The American died along with four Somali officers after a car bomb exploded, local sources told The Guardian.
- He was flown to Germany to be treated but later died from his injuries, The Intercept reports.
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A veteran CIA officer has died after succumbing to injuries sustained in a car explosion in Somalia last month during a failed raid against Islamic militants.
He was a 54-year-old former Navy SEAL and a member of the CIA’s paramilitary division, the Special Activities Centre, The New York Times reported.
He had been deployed alongside US and Somali special forces in Gendershe – a small coastal town about 30 miles from Mogadishu – in an attempted raid on suspected Al Shabaab extremists on November 6.
The operation was launched after Somali officials became aware of three notorious Islamic militants were hiding out in the town that night, local intelligence officials told The Guardian.
Among those men was Abdullahi Osman Mohamed, also known as ‘Engineer Ismail’, classified as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” last month.
Mohamed is Al Shabaab's senior explosive expert, leader of their media wing, and a close ally of the group's 'emir,' according to a US State Department listing.
Al Shabaab is an Islamist militant group which is allied to Al Qaeda. It is classified as a terrorist group by both the US and UK.
There was a 40-minute gun battle before the US and Somali forces withdrew, a Somali officer told The Guardian. During the operation, on November 6, a powerful car bomb detonated, seriously injuring the American and killing four Somali solidiers, a local intelligence official told the Guardian.
The wounded CIA officer was flown to a German military hospital for treatment but died from his injuries, people familiar with the attack told the Intercept.
His death followed a US service member injured in an attack on an Al Shabaab outpost in Jana Cabdalle, Somalia, in September.
There are currently 700 US troops in Somalia. President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to withdraw troops from the region before leaving office, US officials told Reuters.