A Guide to Who's Who in Today's International Islamic Militants (Part 2)

Picking up where we left off yesterday, we move on to Al Shabaab, which has also had a big summer in the headlines.

 

Those of you who may know Al Shabaab from Somalia (okay, I admit, for a while, pretty much the only thing I knew about Al Shabaab was "=Somalia") might be surprised that their last two big news cycles have them in Kenya and Uganda, but first things first, let's get in a little history here.
 

We'll start with a moment we all remember, possibly the one thing most Americans know about Somalia.  The 1993 Battle of Mogadishu.  For those of you who have read the book or seen the movie, this was Black Hawk Down.  If you have not read the book, by Mark Bowden, it is fantastic.  Basically, following the collapse of the Somali government in 1991, clan warfare ensued in which numerous warlords attempted to gain control of the city.  American soldiers sent in to capture leaders of the Habr Gidr clan got sucked into horrendous street warfare with thousands of Somali fighters when first one, and then another of their Black Hawk helicopters were shot down by RPGs.  Following the loss of these American lives, the US got the hell out of dodge and stayed gone from Somalia for the next fifteen years. 
 

The US had gone in initially, with other UN actors, because of the famine, and other humanitarian crises brought on by the total lack of functioning government, which has largely persisted.  In the absence of humanitarian actors, all sorts of shady characters filtered in.  The Islamic Courts Union rose up in the early 2000s an an answer to the chaos.  With no government to provide justice and security, litigants began to pay local judges to settle disputes according to Sharia law.  The Islamic courts started to provide health care and education (surprise surprise, radical madrasas).  Wanting to get more actively involved in the policing aspect (which involved actual policing, like catching criminal sand looters, and also included the enforcement of Sharia law), some of the courts banded together and formed a militia in 1999, which began to take over parts of the capital.  Even this early, the ICU was receiving help (i.e. arms) from the Eritrean government and foreign jihadist fighters, in a trend that would also become pretty standard for Al Shabaab later.

 

In 2000, the ICU came into conflict with the warlords in the city.  The clans are more secular and had been already fighting for control among one another for almost a decade.  This conflict merged and morphed into the war with the transitional federal government (TFG) forces (backed by Ethiopia).  Eventually, by 2006, the ICU had lost enough territory that its leadership resigned and went into hiding.
 

The remainder of the ICU leadership regrouped with its hardline youth members, Harakat al Shabaab al Mujahadeen or Al Shabaab (the Youth), mashed up with Al Qaeda jihadi fighters, and began to wage guerrilla attacks on TFG forces (backed by 2007 by Ethiopian, Kenyan and US forces).  In addition to its political beef with the TFG, Al Shabaab maintains its religious roots in the Islamic courts movement and considers itself as waging jihad against the enemies of Islam (in which it includes Sufi Muslims as well).  In addition to the regular terror attacks which we've all likely heard about (suicide bombings, car bombings), Al Shabaab also targets humanitarian workers and, in case they didn't seem despicable enough, ELEPHANTS (for their ivory).  In 2012, Al Shabaab declared its allegiance to Al Qaeda.
 

Al Shabaab has been out of their usual wheelhouse lately, geographically speaking.  In 2012, there were a lot of rumors of Al Shabaab fighters supporting Al Qaeda efforts to take over territory in Yemen.  To punish Kenya for its support as part of the African Union force propping up the transitional government, Al Shabaab has engaged in a number of attacks there including the Westgate mall terror attack that killed 67, and a number of deadly attacks on automobiles on roads where gunmen stop cars and buses and mow them with machine guns.
 

Last weekend, Ugandan police arrested 19 suspects allegedly planning bombing attacks in Kampala and other Ugandan areas, and confiscated the explosives they intended to use.  Four years ago, an Al Shabaab bombing attack on two restaurants during the World Cup Final had left 76 people dead.

The recent planned Uganda attacks came as retaliation after Ugandan troops in Somalia reportedly provided some of the intelligence US forces used to kill Al Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane in an airstrike 105 miles outside Mogadishu on September 1, 2014.
 

Although Al Shabaab is often referred to as an Al Qaeda affiliate, it is Al Qaeda that seems to be benefitting primarily from the stream of arms and fighters Al Shabaab can provide.  This is generally true of Al Qaeda's central branch these days in that under Zawahiri's leadership it seems more reliant on its regional branches (Al Shabaab in Somalia, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, and Jabhat al Nusra in Syria) for support and relevance than the central supplier of strategy, funding, and top generals that it was under Bin Laden.  For this reason, I am not sure that Al Qaeda still belongs fully in the category of Today's International Islamic Militants. 

Because of their continued access to particular skill sets, such as bomb making and military strategy, their commitment to striking at the West rather than getting mucked down in regional squabbles, and their continued shady Gulf funding sources, Al Qaeda still has the best chance of reaching a big target on American or European soil.  However, the drain on their already stretched resources of having to fight ISIS on a number of fronts may limit their ability to effectively carry out another 9/11 sized plan with the same level of patience, concentration and funding for the immediate future.  Insha'allah anyway, God Willing.