A CIA Fighter, a Somali Bomb Maker, and a Faltering Shadow War

Declan Walsh, Eric Schmitt and Julian E. Barnes / The New York Times

Mogadishu's streets bear the scars of war, many of them decades old. (photo: Tyler Hicks/NYT)

A CIA Fighter, a Somali Bomb Maker, and a Faltering Shadow War

Declan Walsh, Eric Schmitt and Julian E. Barnes / The New York Times

24 october 21

The hunt for an elusive Somali militant illustrates why Al Shabab, despite a decade of American covert action, are at their strongest in years.

The C.I.A. convoy rolled out of Mogadishu in the dead of night, headed south along a crumbling ocean road that led deep into territory controlled by Al Shabab, one of Africa’s deadliest militant groups.

The vehicles halted at a seaside village where American and Somali paramilitaries poured out, storming a house and killing several militants, Somali officials said. But one man escaped, sprinted to an explosives-filled vehicle primed for a suicide bombing, and hit the detonator.

The blast last November killed three Somalis and grievously wounded an American: Michael Goodboe, 54, a C.I.A. paramilitary specialist and former Navy SEAL, who was airlifted to a U.S. military hospital in Germany. He died 17 days later.