skies darkened and the winds began to howl, they feared the worse. >> we knew there was a tornado. my husband was out watching. i heard it was going to hit the town of wayne, he ran in and we hit the basement. her children spent the afternoon elsewhere and were fine. kenneth chamberlain said the damage is immense, but he's thankful no one was killed. >> everyone we know of are safe and sound. there were some injuries. >> reporter: poppy harlow, cnn, atlanta. top of the hour. i'm don lemon. we appreciate you joining us on cnn. we are going to begin with the severe weather. it is making it very interesting for people all over the country. tornadoes, blizzards and

tropical storms. where do we begin? this is the gulf coast. it looks beautiful and calm. a tropical storm is spinning 100 miles off the louisiana coast. cnn forecasters don't expect tropical storm karen to be much more than a rainmaker in the coming days. still going to make a lot of rain. in the midwest, let's go to nebraska. a tornado that struck the town of wayne, produced damage on the scale of ef-4 storm. that means winds up to 200 miles per hour. nobody was killed but a few hours destroyed. south dakota, surprise! a pile of snow for you. 30 to 40 inches of snow fell in 24 hours. today, people in the plains are digging out, clearing the roads and checking their calendars. it is the first week of october, welcome to winter, everyone. chad meyers joins us from the cnn weather center. a lot of weather to talk about here.

let's start with tropical storm karen, go. >> still there, didn't die off yet, but doesn't have a good signature, don. the center of karen is there. you are saying no it's not, the center is there. no, that's the problem. the storms are not over the center and can't get bigger. it's about to die. it will be over plaquemines parish then the big bend of florida and jacksonville. if the storm gets bigger, we could see winds of 40 to 45 miles per hour and knock down trees and power lines. right now, it's not very impressive. not as impressive as this. how many times have i talked about a tropical storm and snow together? never. blizzard warnings going on at this hour. itis still snowing. it's still snowing hard. the winds are blowing 30 to 40.

also, a couple thunderstorms popping up still in iowa back to wisconsin and minneapolis. one cell went very close to chicago, not that long ago. just to the west of the city and right on up to the lakeshore, there it goes, right there. it had a severe thunderstorm warning on it with a little tree limb damage around chicagoland. take a look at that later in the show. >> chad myers, we'll get back to you soon. tropical storm karen, the storm that never was. the city dodged -- there it is, dodged severe weather strike. the tropical storm is called off. the storm will just get weaker as it sits and spins over the gulf of mexico like chad myers said, karen is a dud. i want to bring in nick valencia in pensacola, florida. the storm is going to bring a lot of rain, high winds later. what are things like there now?

it looks beautiful. >> reporter: it is gorgeous out here, don. when you talk to the locals, they are not that impressed with what karen has been so far. chad myers putting it into perspective. the biggest concern, look at what we have on pensacola beach. those are the rough rip currents. the swimmers were told to get out of the water. they think it's too strong. one of the causes of the storm moving up toward the northern gulf coast, people are anxious and want to get into the water. enjoying this shot here. we have seen so many people, tourists and residents. there's been a lot of good news. earlier this week, it was anticipated to be a significant event. at one time, a hurricane. we are not hearing that anymore. the national hurricane center says there is no longer the possibility of this to turn into a hurricane. that's really good news. some of the precautions people are taking here is this area has

really gotten hit over the last couple years. this area is saturated. it causes significant problems when you think about the trees and how easily they can be uprooted because of past storms. being out here, talking to residents, they are not that concerned. we have not seen boards put up or houses boarded up. people are waiting for the rain to come, one to three inches expected. not that significant. don? >> they are warriors. they are soldiers. they know how to deal with this. tough assignment you got there. >> reporter: yeah, yeah, yeah. making due with what wech. >> i know what's going to happen tonight after you finish this broadcast. enjoy, for me. see you soon nick valencia in pensacola, florida. back to work for 400,000 federal workers. don't get excited just yet. the government shutdown not over. we are going to explain next. all the hostility in washington.

why are we so angry? can't we all just get along? but they didn't fit. customer's not happy, i'm not happy. sales go down, i'm not happy. merch comes back, i'm not happy. use ups. they make returns easy. unhappy customer becomes happy customer. then, repeat customer. easy returns, i'm happy. repeat customers, i'm happy. sales go up, i'm happy. i ordered another pair. i'm happy. (both) i'm happy. i'm happy. happy. happy. happy. happy. happy happy. i love logistics.

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return if they are responsible for helping service members and a bill to give back pay to all furloughed government employees. the agreement ended there. political head butting, again, after that vote. >> the speaker has said that his concern is the motion to instruct. today, we standing here are making an unprecedented offer, by the minority, to the majority to the speaker of the house. if you will agree to pass a short term bill and move the conference, the final budget discussion for this fiscal year, we will not offer any motions to instruct. this is news, my friends. please recognize it as such. >> we can work this out and we have, for the period now, in fact going back five years thought this shutdown has been

brought about by the presidents unwillingness to sit down and talk to us on the hill. >> contrary to what the president and those in the white house believe, there are no winners when the federal government shuts down. there are real consequences. and the house did not want this shutdown. we believe their my way or the highway mentality cannot be sustained. >> don't you get tired of the talking points? got something for you, stand by. president obama took stab at john boehner today in an interview with the associated press. the president blamed boehner for not stopping the shutdown. there are enough votes to end the shutdown, if the speaker would allow a vote. do you get upset? this is why i said stand by.

do you get upset when you are watching the news and you hear politicians talk in circles to reporters and anchors? ever wonder why i get, shall we say indignant, okay, a lot indignant on tv? here is why. >> if we keep saying we want to defund it, we fought for that and now we are willing to compromise, i think, well i know we don't want to be here, but we are going to win this, i think. >> so, republican senate leaders scheming there on open mics not about how to compromise to help the american people, but how to shape the message to win this bicker fest. fasten your seatbelts. it's time for no talking points. all right, so you know how they say everything comes out in the rinse. all you have to do is wait, give it time. here is the rinse. the reason we started the no talking point segment, how it got its name, during the run up

to the 2012 presidential election, i got fed up with talking points and not being challenged by it. the inspiration was rand paul. let me refresh your memories. >> while many in the -- >> hang on, hang on, one second. again -- >> you are in the middle of my ansz. >> i'm asking you to answer the question. with all due respect, i'm asking you, do you feel the public sentiment in washington? >> this isn't a talking point. >> mm-hmm. that went on for a bit. after that broadcast, i said i'm sick of this. we are going to start a session called no talking points. everyone agreed and said go for it. it's frustrating and makes you angry. the slight of hand and double speak are part of the reasons so many americans are so angry. the haves, not looking out for the have nots. >> there's a lot of tension in

america. i think americans are hurting at the macro level. the average annual wage of people has not moved up. that looked to me like a clash of the haves and the have nots. >> she's talking ability the motorcycle incident. this is in new york. an suv driver got into it with bikers. we see the anger in the streets. and in the capitol from one side of the shutdown, listen. >> this morning, i get the wall street journal out and it says we don't care how long this lasts because we are winning. this isn't some damn game. >> he's right. it is not some damn game, but his colleague, senator paul must think it is a game, if he thinks he's winning. senator paul, you are not

winning. the democrats aren't winning, either. none of you, not one of you is winning and we are all losing. i can't help but wonder, are all the politicians too angry to listen to the senate chaplain who offered some wise advice in a prayer this week. here it is. >> deliver us from the hypocrisy of attempting to sound reasonable while being unreasonable. remove the burdens of those who are the collateral damage of this government shutdown. >> and i will add to that, heaven help us, amen. that's tonight's no talking points. all right, we are going to talk about the back and forth bickering, the complaining and open mic in washington.

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all right. let's get back to our no holds barred where we tell the truth here. before the break, i told you who i think is winning. no one is winning here. the reality is politics always have winners and losers. here's -- i'm going to bring in howard. he is a public relations he is a spin doctor. >> my mother always wanted me to be a doctor. i'm happy with that. >> you are welcome and to you as

well. listen, you are in los angeles. i'm sure you heard my segment. howard, washington seems obsessed with who is winning the shutdown. give me a score card if you can and pick democrats, republicans, who is winning here, anyone? >> in addition to traditional pr, i do a lot of online stuff and my role. one of the things i do is following social media. we have been doing a lot of analysis on this. most of the time, the country is evenly split. 40% like the democrats, 40% like the republicans, 10% hate both. 10% don't care. right? this time, the republicans are getting beaten up pretty badly. the republicans are down to about 35% positive in social media, 65% negative, which is a very -- it's a landslide in social media. a couple things are happening. number one, it's trending worse

every day for the republicans. >> right. >> these things are -- the numbers are getting bigger. earlier in the week, it was in the 50s. by the end of the week, it was about 65%. so, that tells you how it's trending. that's why the republicans have been moving the goalpost on their side. yeah? >> go ahead, finish. then i have a question. >> obama care is kind of at the center of this, right? the republicans are saying we are not going to fund it because we don't like obama care. ironically, the government has been shutdown, obama care has been launched. obama care is interestingly starting to trend more and more positive where once it was truly negative. now it's in the positive range and moving upward. it's what i call the enemy of my enemy is my friend. if we don't like those people and they don't like obama care, we must like obama care.

they are actually hurting themselves. at the same time, the computers are crashing because so many people are trying to get access to the new insurance markets. >> thank you, howard for telling the truth. i think many people are so close to it. they are so partisan that they can't see the forest through the trees, right? the problem is, when you dig yourself in, when you dig in your heels sometimes, sometimes you dig yourself in and if something comes along, you are going to drown yourself, correct? >> well, many republicans are saying we have to get something out of this. they know they are playing this losing hand. but they are saying we have to get something out of this. >> same thing. >> i'm not sure -- yeah, absolutely. i'm not sure what they are going to get out of this. the president was right, john boehner has to take a macro step

toward the people. it's a form of anarchy. we have a law passed by congress. we have a law the supreme court said was legal. it's been implemented. i'm sorry they don't like it. there's been a lot of laws in the past the democrats didn't like. that's what this country is about. you pass laws. if they are deemed legal, you respect them and move forward. >> you work to improve them -- you work to improve them if there are ways to be improved. you don't hold the american people hostage because you are not getting your way. i said this on this program, i have said it on radio, i am not a democrat, nor a republican and when i became a journalist, i disavowed a political thing. don't write me and say don lemon, a big liberal on cnn. no, the members of the tea party are holding the american people

hostage and the republican party as well. the rational people in the republican party, howard. >> there's no question about it. i'm not sure how long a memory the american people will have, but i can tell you, in the holding about do you like democratic congress people versus republican congress people, i think it was 43 to 34, nine points which was an incredibly high gap for the democrats. the republicans are putting themselves at risk. at great risk at this particular time. they are overplaying their hand about the hatred for obama care. there are a lot of people with pre-existing conditions. i think what you said is absolutely true. it's not perfect. anybody that thinks any law is perfect when it's passed is fooling themselves. let's work to make it better. >> i have to run, my friend. thank you, we appreciate it. >> always good to see you, don,

thanks. a lot of americans aren't happy with what's going on in congress and would love the opportunity to tell lawmakers what they think. ted rollens takes us to kansas city, missouri. they have a message for washington. >> reporter: five days into a government shutdown, most people we talk to say they are disgusted with lawmakers. >> this is ridiculous. really, it's ridiculous. >> reporter: what message would you send to lawmakers on both sides? >> come on guys, gals, get together. let's talk. get it done, for the people. >> lawmakers should go back to work and deny pay, they should refuse pay themselves for as long as they are denying pay for the federal government workers. >> reporter: a few people we have talked to don't care -- doesn't bother you? >> no. >> reporter: doesn't affect you? >> not really. >> reporter: they blame the

other. >> they can't get over the fact that president obama beat them twice, okay? that's all there is to it. they are sore losers. >>reporter: a message to republicans on the hill what would you say? >> keep on fighting obama care, i would say. >> reporter: in this manner? >> sure. >> reporter: the message most would like to send applies to both sides. >> end it now so they can get back to work. >> reporter: most are disgusted with lawmakers and disgusted in the sense they allowed this to happen in the first place. it's safe to say they will be more angry the longer this continues. ted rollins, cnn, kansas city, missouri. the latest on the deadly chase through the nation's capitol this week. the sister of the woman shot and killed talked exclusively to cnn. first, getting ready for karen. the live report is next.

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suspects al shabaab leader deep in southern somalia. they are offering few details. at this point, what is unclear is whether or not they were able to get to their target, potentially capture, most likely kill the target before the special operations forces withdrew from the village. it's to be very clear to our viewers, it is unclear at this point what the outcome of the mission was. said to be a target with the al shabaab that al qaeda linked group responsible for that terrible, deadly attack on the shopping mall in kenya just several days ago. the coastline of somalia is really key to all of this. u.s. commandos operate regularly in several locations throughout the horn of africa to the north of somalia and to the south. they have been in and out of somalia on secret missions over

the years, many times going after slad suspects in somalia, killing and capturing them. with that coastline, it is very likely it was navy s.e.a.l.s, not being openly talked about just yet because for the navy s.e.a.l.s, it is so easy for them to get in and out of these rural areas, come in by helicopter, come in by boat, conduct the raids and move out very quickly. it looks like another case where they went into very dangerous territory in somalia to go after a particular target, don? >> can you elaborate more on that? how high of a risk would this mission have been? >> look, i mean, in this part of somalia, there are militant actions, fundment lists, al shabaab that don't take kindly to seeing american helicopters or foreign helicopters of any

sort come after them. the kenyans have been operating in somalia for some time and come under attack and fire at various points. somalia is a very rough neighborhood, a very rough territory. you have a lot of fighters with ak-47s, with explosives, with some potential, some potential for surface to air missile launches, grenade launchers, that kind of thing. navy s.e.a.l.s, army special forces have been in somalia. they come in very heavily armed. they come in usually in helicopter gunships or small boats, heavily armed. the fire power would be very significant. once they get on the ground, once they get into the small towns or villages, they have to move very fast. they have to get to their target, do what they have come to do and get out of there. there are so many people that would oppose this that would

begin to fire at them. they have a lot of concerns about civilian casualties. once they get on the ground, what they want to avoid is getting into a situation where they have a lot of people coming after them with those ak-47 style weapons. their big move when they go into these situations is to get in and get out. don? >> barbara, we are just getting this information. can you sit tight for a bit? i may come back to you. i want to get to peter bergen. he's on the phone. breaking news this hour, cnn confirmed u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s may have killed the al shabaab leader that claim they carried out the deadly terror attack on kenya's mall last month. peter, tell us what you know about this. >> caller: well, you know, al shabaab, the group responsible for the attack on the kenya mall

put itself in united states targets for two reasons. one, in 2012, it's formally aligned with al qaeda which is not a smart move because it's easier for the president to order the kind of operation we are now confirming if this is an actual al qaeda affiliate rather than another jihadist group. there were americans injured in the attack on the kenyan mall. it was the intent of the group to attack the mall because it was a place where westerners congregated. it is not entirely surprising that very quickly, u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s would have done this operation. they are comfortable operating in somalia and have done similar operations in somalia. they rescued captain richard phillips when he was taken hostage by pirates in 2009. it's an area they operate very

comfortably. there are always risks in these operations. >> what does this mean for the war, so to speak on terrorism in the world? >> caller: well, i mean, i think al shabaab is, you can interpret the attack on the mall as really a desperate bid for relevance. they controlled much of southern somalia and has been dealt a number of defeats by the kenyan army and other army units as well as with the help of the united states. you know, terrorism is a lot easier to do than running an insurgency. this may be sort of a little bit of a nail in the coffin of the group if their leader has been killed. that appears it might be the case right now. >> in comparison to other groups, al shabaab, al qaeda and

so on, how does al shabaab rank here? >> caller: they changed their ranking by attacking, you know, a target in kenya which had numerous westerners were killed, americans were injured. you know, they had never really -- they never successfully attacked against a western target as it were before. they certainly tried to attack in denmark and tried to kill a cartoonist who did a cartoon of mohammad. that didn't work. the kenyan attack put them on another level. it would be easy for the president to order this operation as a legal matter because once you announce you are part of al qaeda and you attack or try to attack american targets, you put yourself in a different category than previously. >> peter, stand by. barbara starr, are you there?

i want to reiterate for the people who may be tuning in. we'll get barbara back. breaking news on cnn, these are pictures playing out. cnn confirmed u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s may have carried al shabaab's leader in somalia. we are following this story with the pentagon correspondent and with peter bergen, who is our national security analyst. i want to tell you, this group is the same group that claimed responsibility for carrying out the deadly terror attack on kenya's westgate mall last month. peter, let's continue on until we get barbara starr back. barbara is getting more information. what happens if they have killed this leader, then what is next? obviously, it hampers the progress of this group, one of their top lieutenants is no longer there. what does it mean for al

shabaab? >> caller: it's hard to say. killing osama bin laden didn't end al qaeda but if you kill a lot of bin laden's people, you have a case where the bench is -- it's hard to replace people in their 30s or 40s with a lot of experience and certainly with al qaeda central, a policy of decapitating the leadership is being devastating to the actual al qaeda central group in pakistan. similarly with al shabaab, take out leaders, one of them was an american citizen who was killed probably by al shabaab itself in september. you are seeing the group is losing ground, they are having signs of quarrels that led to the death of one of their leaders now you have this

special operation which seems to have been somewhat effective. we don't know what happened yet. it seems one of the leaders may have been killed. >> all right. peter bergen, stand by. again, we are going to continue to follow this breaking news. u.s. forces went after al shabaab's leader, linked to the kenyan attack. we have more details. peter bergen is working on it as well. we'll be back after this break with the breaking news. i was made to work.

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the breaking news here on cnn is that u.s. special forces involved in a mission to take out a top al shabaab leader, a terror group leader, barbara starr with an update. what do you have? >> just in, a u.s. official is confirming, indeed, as you said

before. it was a team of u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s that went into this town in southern somalia. but, this is a big situation here. the navy s.e.a.l.s had to withdrawal from the town before they could confirm they had killed the target they were going after. the person they were trying to get, the al shabaab leader. we are told by a senior u.s. official the navy s.e.a.l.s had to withdrawal because they came into what he calls a very hostile environment. they came under fire in this town. he says the navy s.e.a.l.s made what he calls a prudent decision to withdrawal from the town rather than engage in further combat and risk causing some number of civilian casualties. that's what they are telling us now. they do not believe any u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s were either killed. there's no word on that, no indication of that or any of them suffered wounds in this

gunfight. we don't know about somalians on the ground, wounded or killed. we don't know if the target they were going after was killed because the gunfight apparently erupted. navy s.e.a.l.s go in pretty heavily armed. they don't usually get overwhelmed to the point of needing to withdrawal in a gunfight unless they are in an environment with a large number of civilians and don't want to get involved in some potential incident of causing civilian casualties. i think we are going to learn much more in the coming days about what exactly the navy s.e.a.l.s encountered in southern somalia. very rough piece of territory down there but they could not fully complete their mission. they couldn't find if they killed the man they were going after because of this gunfight, this hostile environment situation. don? >> this brings to light for me

exactly what we deal with here in the united states. there are people overseas fighting for our freedom all the time and for our freedom and we don't know what's going on. this happens without our knowledge until something like this occurs where a leader may have been taken out, involved in a fight and they have to retreat. we don't really know about it. >> that is so right, don. i think the members of special operations units would tell you if they could that they are involved every day around the world. much of what they do, actually, hopefully, most days is working with other militaries around the world, working in peaceful situations, but very often, as you said, they are involved in antiterrorism missions, basically going after bad guys and doing it in the shadows so often. not getting any public acknowledgement for what they do and, you know, i think it's

really important, as you said, to remember these people and their families, their spouses, their children. often really making that sacrifice of not even being able to talk publicly about what their loved ones are doing in such dangerous parts of the world. don? >> can you talk to us as well about another mission in africa? >> you're talking about what's been going on in libya, i take it? >> absolutely, yes. >> just making sure because there's been a lot going on throughout the day. >> there are a lot of missions, right? >> yeah. well, let's step through this one very carefully as well. our justice reporter, evan paris confirmed an al qaeda leader has been captured in libya in north africa. this, as evan has been reporting. this man is a member of al

qaeda. he had gone to libya some time ago and was suspected of setting up the al qaeda operation in libya. he is on the most wanted list. the u.s. justice department offering a reward of up to $5 million for him. what we have been able to confirm in the last few minutes from a senior u.s. official is that, again, u.s. special forces according to this senior official and he knows this is being reported, u.s. special forces were involved in the capture of this man inside libya. this man not clear at the moment what his exact location is. very few details available about exactly how this operation went down. but, i think, it's a real indication of what we are talking about here tonight. hundreds of miles away at two different ends of the african continent, u.s. special forces in action going against

terrorism targets that the u.s. wanted to get very badly. don? >> barbara, speak to me about, and i asked peter bergen this question, what does this mean? you were talking about al qaeda. can we go back to al shabaab and the breaking news we have. what does this mean for al shabaab? >> you know, i think we have all seen over the last decade plus years that, you know, they go after these various targets and they feel they really have the evidence to go after them, they are involved in terrorist activities. does that really end the terrorist organization 12 years later, 15 years later, we see al qaeda morphing into various organizations around the world. in fact, al shabaab, the al shabaab group is an al qaeda linked group that pledged a certain amount of loyalty to al qaeda.

many groups in libya and syria. what you are dealing with around the world since 9/11 is, you know, al qaeda 2.0 is what a lot of people call it. back in 2001, you had osama bin laden, you had the group of men around him. they have largely been dealt with. you can see the eruption of al qaeda organizations throughout the middle east, throughout africa, mainly in areas where governments are poor and people are not looked after by their governments, there's a lot of poverty and ability for them to recruit constantly a new population of young men to their movements. getting the al shabaab guy, it will do something for awhile. i don't think anybody is predicting it's the end of al shabaab or al qaeda in syria. >> special operations are working around the world every single day and missions being carried out. the reason these two are

breaking news is because they are such high profile people they are going after and organizations. so, talk to me about what else could be going on. why these two are so significant, then i'm going to get to peter bergen. >> i think one of the things that is so significant is, you know, it doesn't take a lot of imagination, if you will, to figure out the risks that u.s. forces are at when they go on the missions. it's just a simple fact. they have to gather intelligence for weeks ahead of time to know what they are going into. they have to know where their targets are. are they going to go in by helicopter or aircraft, what kind of opposition they are going to face, who may be shooting as them as they land. all these things. planning these missions, very

secretive and covert. we never hear about them ahead of time as they are planning them. everybody should probably be aware that this goes on all the time. you can only imagine, i suppose, what missions might be being planned now. we know, we all know for the last year, the u.s. has been wanting very much to go after the suspects that were responsible for the attack on the benghazi diplomatic compound. last september 11th, we see no mission to do that. it's clear the president said he wants justice delivered to those people, so that is still out there. going after the leader of al qaeda in pakistan whose holed up there. that is still out there. so, there's a lot still going on. i think there's no question about that. but, does any of it change when you have things like the boston bombing attack when two men decided to look up, apparently on the internet how to make a bomb out of a pressure cooker.

you have a new form of terrorism that all the military admissions around the world and the shadows aren't going to get to when people can learn these types of things off the internet. don? >> very well said. two americans. they are not people overseas. barbara starr, stand by. more on the breaking news there. special forces involved in libya and somalia going after very high profile terrorists. our security analyst, peter bergen weighs in on the other side of this break. hey guten morgen guess who? mr. mojito? ok it's got to be really fast, i've got one second hey no way wei hey, ca va? nudeq nuqdaq duch doch bolz stop calling me oh my god, no! how are they looking? we did it baby woohh oi ma yerp yerp moshi moshi, meow what?! ♪

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breaking news here on cnn. please pay attention. cnn confirmed u.s. special forces went on a mission in somalia, went after al shabaab's leader, possibly linked to the kenya mall attack. that is a group that claimed they carried out the deadly

attack in kenya's westgate mall. also, the other breaking news story, the al qaeda responsible for the 1998 bombing on u.s. embassies may have been captured. he topped the most wanted list for years. he joined al qaeda soon after its founding and is considered a senior member of al qaeda. i want to get to cnns pentagon correspondent. barbara starr, let's talk first about the latest one in now. the mission in somalia, barbara. >> well, don, what we know is the navy s.e.a.l.s went into this small town in southern somalia to try to capture a leader in the al shabaab network. this is the al qaeda linked group in somalia said to be responsible for many attacks, including the attack on the shopping mall in kenya that we

watched unfold several days ago. not clear this man was directly linked to the shopping mall attack, but said to be a major figure in the al shabaab network. what we know is that some type of fire fight, major fight erupted on the ground because the navy s.e.a.l.s had to leave the town in what they are calling, we are told, was a prudent move rather than continue to engage in this operation. there was some sort of risk, we are told, of killing some significant number of civilians, which they didn't want to do, of course. so, where it stands right now is the s.e.a.l.s don't know if they were able to kill the man they were after. they were not able to capture him. they don't know if he was killed because of the fire fight and the s.e.a.l.s decided to withdrawal. that is the language used.

the s.e.a.l.s made the decision to withdrawal. more information is certain to arrive in the coming hours. we don't know, for example, to what extent the s.e.a.l.s were moving through the village. did they have to lev equipment behind? were they able to get back to either helicopters or small boats they came in on? there's no indication at this point of any s.e.a.l.s wounded or killed in the incident. all indications are they got out of there. we talked about this a little bit earlier when they go in on dangerous missions. their biggest issue really is getting in as fast as they can and getting out as fast as they can. they are at significant risk the whole time they are on the ground. when they practice for these missions, as we saw on the raid to capture osama bin laden, you want to spend as little time on the ground as possible. the most important thing after

you get in is to get out. don? >> sit tight. i want to go to nairobi. you are extensive knowledge about somalia. what can you tell us? >> caller: there's a remaining stronghold in south central somalia. it's interesting, the s.e.a.l.s made a conscious decision to retreat rather than civilians. it's a very secure area. this is where most of them have been living the last few years. the major leadership has been living here as they have been increasingly squeeze zed from both sides by the kenyan defense forces coming in from the south and the african union forces. this is an area that is heavily guarded, heavily, heavily armed. it's understandable that given,

as soon as the operation was seen to be compromised in some way, it was easier to withdrawal back to sea, i imagine. by the way, it's a port town, rather than engage on what is al shabaab's territory. one of the things about al shabaab, they are the most wired and most high profile on social media. we are seeing them take to social media to talk about it. they are posting pictures on an affiliate website that shows the equipment the s.e.a.l.s were forced to leave behind. we are seeing pictures, we haven't managed to get them yet, but we are seeing u.s. navigation, gps devices and hand grenades they were claiming were used during the attack. the kind of bullets used in h-16, which is the u.s. military

assault rifle that is often carried in those kind of operations. al shabaab is claiming this is a victory. for the s.e.a.l.s to carry this out in an area al shabaab considers a safe ground for them, they have to be feeling that tonight. don? >> stand by. don't go away, everyone. the breaking news this hour on cnn is there have been two big operations carried out across the ocean. breaking news on cnn. one is a group that claimed responsibility for the deadly mall killing in kenya, u.s. special forces went on a mission in somalia to take one of their leaders out. the other one is a top al qaeda operative has also been taken out. at least the first person. we are not sure. they went on a mission.