Turkey not involved in Somalia al Shabaab raid -Turkish official

Turkish special forces did not take any part in a dawn attack on a stronghold of the Somalian Islamist militia al Shaabab, a foreign ministry official said on Saturday, denying an accusation by the Islamist militia.
   
Al Shabaab had said British and Turkish special forces carried out a raid in the small town of Barawe in the south of the country, killing one rebel. It said a British officer had been killed and several British soldiers and one Turk wounded.
   
"No such thing has taken place," the Turkish official said.
 
Earlier, the group said that "Westerners" attacked a house in one of its coastal bases overnight in the town of Barawe, about 180 km (110 miles) south of the capital of Mogadishu, killing one rebel fighter.              

"Westerners in boats attacked our base at Barawe beach and one was martyred from our side," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's spokesman for military operations, told Reuters by telephone. A resident said he had heard a gunfight during the night.                   

It was not immediately clear who had been killed and why the Barawe base had been targeted specifically. The al Qaeda-linked group has said it carried out an attack on a Kenyan shopping mall two weeks ago which killed at least 67 people.


REUTERS