| Battle of Bargal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the War in Somalia (2006–2009) Operation Enduring Freedom - Horn of Africa | |||||||
 Somalia, Bargal is at the right hand tip of the Horn. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Islamic Courts Union |
 Puntland United States | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 12-35 insurgents |
Land: unknown militia 3US Military Sea: 1destroyer | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 12 killed |
Puntland: 5 wounded United States: None | ||||||
The Battle of Bargal occurred in June 2007 around the town of Bargal in the northern province of Bari, in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland.
On May 30, between 12 and 35 heavily armed Islamist fighters arrived in two fishing boats from southern Somalia. They were a group of Al-Qaeda fighters from multiple countries heading to the Middle East via Yemen. After their boats sustained damaged from the rough seas they came ashore in Bargal where they raided a local village and clashed with locals before heading up the hills surrounding Bargal. Three members in a task force created by Tier 1 operators from multiple US Military branches (including Chris Vansant a Delta Force operator) who had been tracking the boats arrived in Bargal and with the help of a local warlord "Bashir" set up a patrol base and eventually confronted the fighters. In the fighting some of the local fighters were injured.[1] On June 1, the Combat Controller in the 3 man US team contacted a United States Navy warship, the USS Chafee, and directed fire to the hills around Bargal where Islamist militants had set up a base. The target of the shelling may have been an al-Qaeda operative who the United States believed was involved in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
According to the Puntland regional government, as many as a dozen fighters including Somali militants as well as British nationals, Americans, Swedish, Pakistanis and Yemenis were killed in these operations, and five government troops were injured.
