2009 Baraawe raid

The Barawee raid, code named Operation Celestial Balance, was a helicopter assault by United States Special Operations Forces against the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and associated al-Shabaab militants near the town of Baraawe in southern Somalia.

Background
Nabhan had been wanted by the United States since 2006 in connection to several terrorist attacks in East Africa, including the 1998 United States embassy bombings and the 2002 Mombasa attacks. In 2007, in the midst of the Battle of Ras Kamboni, Nabhan was unsuccessfully targeted by an American military airstrike in the town of Ras Kamboni.

Raid
To avoid collateral damage the United States chose to use a special operations team to target Nabhan rather than launching a missile attack as they did in the Dobley airstrike. He was seen traveling in a two-car convoy from the southern coastal town of Barawe, which is controlled by al-Shabab. This was seen to be the best opportunity to target him as he would be away from civilian population. US Army Special Forces launched from a U.S. naval vessel offshore in AH-6 Little Bird Helicopters. Once the helicopters had reached the target location in which the convoy had stopped for breakfast, the helicopters or the occupants opened fire on the convoy killing Nabhan and three other militants.

At least one helicopter landed briefly dropping off a small US Navy SEAL Team, to recover Nabhan's body and bring two other wounded militants back to their ship.