US raids: Somalia's PM says working with other nations to defeat al Shabaab

An armed member of the militant group al-Shabab attends a rally on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia on Feb 13, 2013. -- FILE PHOTO: AP
An armed member of the militant group al-Shabab attends a rally on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia on Feb 13, 2013. -- FILE PHOTO: AP

MOGADISHU (REUTERS) - Somalia's Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon said on Sunday his government was working with international partners and neighbouring states to combat al Shabaab, in the first remarks by the government since Saturday's raid by United States forces on a militant base.

"We have collaboration with the world and with neighbouring countries in the battle against al Shabaab," Mr Shirdon told reporters when asked if his government was aware of the raid on the Somali port of Barawe, south of Mogadishu.

US forces conducted raids in Libya and Somalia on Saturday, two weeks after the attack on a Nairobi shopping mall which was claimed by al Shabaab, capturing an al Qaeda figure in Tripoli wanted for the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. The raid on Barawe failed to take its target.

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