A C.I.A. Fighter, a Somali Bomb Maker, and a Faltering Shadow War

The hunt for an elusive Somali militant illustrates why Al Shabab, the wealthy and dangerous group tied to Al Qaeda, is at its strongest in years.
Despite a decade of American covert action, they roam the countryside, bomb cities and run an undercover state, complete with courts and parallel taxes

By Declan Walsh, Eric Schmitt and Julian E. Barnes Photographs by Tyler Hicks @ NYTimes.com, Oct. 24, 2021Updated 1:44 p.m. ET

MOGADISHU, Somalia — 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.

His was a rare American fatality in the decade-old shadow war against Al Shabab, the world’s wealthiest and arguably most dangerous Al Qaeda affiliate. But Mr. Goodboe was also a casualty of an American way of war that has flourished since the terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001, now under greater scrutiny than ever.

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