On 5 October 2013, Al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab announced that Western naval forces had launched an assault on a house in the insurgent stronghold of Barawe, a town situated around 180 kilometres (110 mi) south of Mogadishu.

Additionally, a Somali intelligence official indicated that a Chechen Al-Shabaab leader was the target of the mission, and that the insurgent commander was wounded during the offensive and one of his guards was killed.

A senior US military representative also indicated that SEAL Team Six, the special operations unit responsible for killing Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, launched the offensive but later abandoned the mission after coming under more fire than expected.

Speaking about the aborted mission, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that the insurgents "can run but they can't hide".

A spokesman for the Pentagon likewise asserted that US soldiers had been involved in a counter-terrorism mission in Somalia against a known Al-Shabaab member, but did not elaborate.