Al-Shabaab claims British, Turkish special forces attack Somali base.

Al-Shabaab claims British, Turkish special forces attack Somali base.(HD).

British and Turkish special forces staged a nighttime sea and air attack on a key base of Somalia's Al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab, the insurgents said Oct. 5, claiming the assault had failed.

Islamist commanders in the southern Somali port of Barawe said commandos rappelled from a helicopter as they tried to storm a house belonging to a senior al-Shabaab commander.

The assault comes two weeks after al-Shabaab gunmen attacked Kenya's Westgate shopping mall, massacring 67 people in a four-day siege.

"The enemy of Allah tried to surprise the mujahedeen commanders with a night attack using a military helicopter, but they were taught a lesson and they have failed," Mohamed Abu Suleiman, the al-Shabaab commander in the small seaside town, told AFP.

"Our mujahedeen fighters inside the house fought back and the cowards ran away," Suleiman added.
Al-Shabaab spokesman Abdulaziz Abu Musab later blamed the raid on "Britons and Turks."

He said commandos had also stormed the beach by boat.

"The bungled operation was carried out by white people, who came with two small boats from a larger ship out at sea... one al-Shabaab guard was killed, but reinforcements soon came and the foreigners fled," he told AFP.Read the full story here.