( They can run , but they cant hide )
US special forces hunt and kill senior Al Qaeda operative
US special forces in helicopters attacked a car in rebel-held southern Somalia on Monday, killing Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan.
The Kenyan was said to have built the truck bomb that killed 15 people at an Israeli-owned beach hotel on his country's coast in 2002.
Nabhan, 28, was also accused of involvement in a simultaneous, but botched, missile attack on a Israeli airliner packed with tourists, as it left nearby Mombasa.
Several senior Somali government sources said he had been killed along with four other foreign members of al Shabaab.
The rebel group, which Washington describes as al Qaeda's proxy in Somalia, responded angrily to Nabhan's death.
"Al Shabaab will continue targeting Western countries, especially America... we are killing them and they are hunting us," al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Bare Mohamed Farah Khoje said.
"We wish we could eradicate them all. We will never forget our brothers who were targeted illegally by the United States."
The attack marked an apparent change in tactics for the US military, which has previously targeted wanted militants in Somalia using missiles, as opposed to helicopter-borne troops.
Western security agencies say the failed Horn of Africa state has become a safe haven for militants, including foreigners, who use it to plot attacks in the region and beyond.
Another Islamist group linked to al Shabaab also expressed its outrage and said the raid would feed local resentment.
But a moderate Somali militia that has been battling al Shabaab praised the US operation and called for more strikes to wipe out foreign jihadists hiding in Somalia.
Nabhan was killed near Roobow village in Barawe District, 150 miles south of the capital Mogadishu.
US special forces hunt and kill senior Al Qaeda operative
US special forces in helicopters attacked a car in rebel-held southern Somalia on Monday, killing Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan.
The Kenyan was said to have built the truck bomb that killed 15 people at an Israeli-owned beach hotel on his country's coast in 2002.
Nabhan, 28, was also accused of involvement in a simultaneous, but botched, missile attack on a Israeli airliner packed with tourists, as it left nearby Mombasa.
Several senior Somali government sources said he had been killed along with four other foreign members of al Shabaab.
The rebel group, which Washington describes as al Qaeda's proxy in Somalia, responded angrily to Nabhan's death.
"Al Shabaab will continue targeting Western countries, especially America... we are killing them and they are hunting us," al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Bare Mohamed Farah Khoje said.
"We wish we could eradicate them all. We will never forget our brothers who were targeted illegally by the United States."
The attack marked an apparent change in tactics for the US military, which has previously targeted wanted militants in Somalia using missiles, as opposed to helicopter-borne troops.
Western security agencies say the failed Horn of Africa state has become a safe haven for militants, including foreigners, who use it to plot attacks in the region and beyond.
Another Islamist group linked to al Shabaab also expressed its outrage and said the raid would feed local resentment.
But a moderate Somali militia that has been battling al Shabaab praised the US operation and called for more strikes to wipe out foreign jihadists hiding in Somalia.
Nabhan was killed near Roobow village in Barawe District, 150 miles south of the capital Mogadishu.
