In a communique, Pentagon spokesman George Little said that the Navy's SEAL Team Six was given the task of capturing Abdikadir Mohamed Abdikadir, a Kenyan of Somali origin known as "Ikrima" and who is one of the main leaders of the Al Shabaab terrorist group, which is affiliated with Al Qaeda.

The US government had not provided many details about the incursion into Somalia to try and nab Ikrima, an operation that coincided with another successful US anti-terrorist strike in Libya.