Author: Jonathan Masters, Deputy Editor
March, 2013
Introduction
What are the origins of al-Shabaab?
An Interactive Timeline of al-Shabaab
What were the turning points for al-Shabaab?
What are al-Shabaab's objectives?
Who are the group's leaders?
How is al-Shabaab funded?
Is al-Shabaab recruiting Americans?
What is U.S. policy in Somalia?
Introduction
Al-Shabaab, or "The Youth," is an al-Qaeda-linked militant group and
U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization fighting for the creation of
a fundamentalist Islamic state in Somalia. The group, also known as Harakat
al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, and its Islamist affiliates once held sway over
Mogadishu and major portions of the Somali countryside, but a sustained
African Union military campaign in recent years has forced the group's
retreat from most major towns, including its former stronghold in the
southern port of city of Kismayo. In early 2013, many experts believe
al-Shabaab, facing both internal and external pressures, is greatly
weakened. Still, others warn the group remains a threat in a politically
volatile, war-torn state.
Al-Shabaab's terrorist activities have mainly focused on targets within
Somalia, but it has also proven an ability to carry out deadly strikes in
the region, including coordinated suicide bombings in Uganda's capital in
2010. Washington fears the group, which has successfully recruited members
of the Somali-American diaspora, may orchestrate strikes on U.S. soil. In
recent years, the United States has pursued a two-pronged policy in Somalia:
providing funding, training, and logistical support to UN-backed African
forces battling al-Shabaab, while escalating counterterrorism operations
including Special Forces and armed drones.
What are the origins of al-Shabaab?
Somalia, one of the most impoverished countries in the world, has seen a
number of radical Islamist groups come and go in its decades-long political
tumult. The group analysts cite as al-Shabaab's precursor, and the incubator
for many of its leaders, is Al-Ittihad Al-Islami (aka Unity of Islam), a
militant Salafi extremist group that peaked in the 1990s after the fall of
the Siad Barre military regime (1969-1991) and the outbreak of civil war.
AIAI, which sought to establish an Islamist emirate in Somalia, sprang from
a band of Middle Eastern-educated Somali extremists and was partly funded
and armed by al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. Many of its fighters, including
current al-Shabaab commanders, fled the country and fought in Afghanistan in
the late 1990s after being pushed out by the Ethiopian army and its Somali
supporters. The group was designated a terrorist organization by the U.S.
State Department in the days after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
In 2003, a rift developed between AIAI's old guard, which had decided to
create a new political front, and youth members who sought the establishment
of a "Greater Somalia" under fundamental Islamic rule. The hardliners
eventually joined forces with an alliance of sharia courts, known as the
Islamic Courts Union, serving as its youth militia in the battle to conquer
Mogadishu's rivaling warlords. Al-Shabaab and the ICU wrested control of the
capital in June 2006, a victory that stoked fears of spillover jihadist
violence in neighboring Ethiopia, a majority Christian nation.
An Interactive Timeline of al-Shabaab
What were the turning points for al-Shabaab?
Ethiopia invaded Somalia in December 2006 and ousted the ICU from Mogadishu
with little resistance. The intervention, which came at the request of
Somalia's transitional government, had a radicalizing effect on al-Shabaab,
analysts say. After much of the ICU fled to neighboring countries,
al-Shabaab remained and retreated to the south, from where it began
organizing asymmetric assaults, including bombings and assassinations, on
conventional Ethiopian forces. Some experts say it was during these years
that the group morphed into a full-fledged guerilla movement and gained
control over large pieces of territory in central and southern Somalia.
The Ethiopian occupation was responsible for "transforming the group from a
small, relatively unimportant part of a more moderate Islamic movement into
the most powerful and radical armed faction in the country," writes Rob
Wise, a counterterrorism expert at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies.
Addis Ababa says the intervention was a "reluctant response" to calls by the
ICU for a jihad against Ethiopia and renewed territorial claims against both
Ethiopia and Kenya. It has stressed that the intervention was supported by
the United States and the African Union, among others.
New Islamist-nationalist fighters swelled al-Shabaab's ranks from around 400
into the thousands between 2006 and 2008. The group's numbers as of January
2013 are unclear, but analysts note al-Shabaab's popularity has suffered in
recent years due to its brutal tactics. Additionally, accurate membership is
difficult to estimate after many of its fighters have scattered.
This was also a period when the group's ties to al-Qaeda began to emerge.
Al-Shabaab leaders publicly praised the international terrorist network and
condemned what they characterized as U.S. crimes against Muslims worldwide.
The State Department designated al-Shabaab a Foreign Terrorist Organization
in February 2008. Two years later, the group vowed to "connect the horn of
Africa jihad to the one led by al-Qaeda and its leader Sheikh Osama bin
Laden." However, it was not until February 2012 that al-Shabaab's leadership
formally declared allegiance to al-Qaeda.
In June 2010, al-Shabaab seemed to make good on its promises of jihad with
coordinated suicide bombings that killed seventy-four people gathered to
watch the World Cup in Kampala, Uganda. It was the group's first terrorist
attack outside of Somalia. "We are sending a message to every country who is
willing to send troops to Somalia that they will face attacks on their
territory," said a spokesman at the time.
Uganda was the first nation to send forces into Somalia in March 2007 under
the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), charged with defending the
transitional government. As of January 2013, Kampala maintained the largest
contingent in the UN-backed force with more than 6,000 personnel. Other
AMISOM troops come from Kenya (5,500), Burundi (5,430), and Djibouti (960).
What are al-Shabaab's objectives?
Many analysts say the group is not monolithic and its objectives vary.
Writing in 2012, former CFR fellow and Africa expert Bronwyn E. Bruton
described some of the cleavages that divide al-Shabaab's leadership,
including competing clan loyalties and rifts between the group's
nationalists intent on ousting AMISOM and the central government, and
Gulf-sponsored radicals with transnational terror aims. The group continues
to threaten neighboring countries as well as Western interests in Africa. In
January 2013, Ethiopian authorities arrested more than a dozen
al-Shabaab-linked militants allegedly plotting attacks in the country's
east.
In areas it controls, al-Shabaab enforces its own harsh interpretation of
sharia law, prohibiting various types of entertainment, such as movies and
music, the sale of khat (a narcotic plant often chewed), smoking, the
shaving of beards, and many other "un-Islamic" activities. Stonings and
amputations have been meted out as punishment on adulterers and thieves.
According to international rights groups, al-Shabaab often kidnaps young
boys from school and forces them to fight and die in battle.
The group also violently persecutes non-Muslims, including Christians, and
is a major threat to humanitarian and other international workers, according
to the U.S. State Department. Several beheadings of so-called apostates have
been recorded. Al-Shabaab also is known to have desecrated the graves of
those from other religious groups, including moderate Islamic clerics.
Who are the group's leaders?
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who fought against Ethiopia as a colonel in the
Siad Biarre regime in the 1970s, is reportedly al-Shabaab's spiritual
leader. He commanded the military arm of the AIAI, and then took over
leadership of the ICU. In 2006, Aweys handed operational command of
al-Shabaab to a young Somali jihadi, Aden Hashi Ayro, who was killed in a
U.S. missile strike in May 2008.
Since Ayro's death, Ahmed Abdi Godane (aka Abu Zubayr), one of al-Shabaab's
founders, has reportedly served as the group's top commander. He was
designated a global terrorist by the United States in November 2008. Sheikh
Mukhtar Robow (aka Abu Mansur), also an original member, serves as the
group's second-in-command.
How is al-Shabaab funded?
Counterterrorism experts say al-Shabaab has benefited from several different
sources of income over the years, including revenue from other terrorist
groups, state sponsors, the Somali diaspora, charities, piracy, kidnapping,
and the extortion of local businesses. Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, Iran,
Qatar, and Eritrea have been cited as prominent state backers--although most
of these governments officially deny these claims.
Domestically, the group built up an extensive racketeering operation in
Kismayo after seizing control of the southern port city and its vibrant
economy in 2008. The trade of charcoal, in particular, is essential to the
city's commerce. However, a Kenyan-led assault on Kismayo liberated the port
of al-Shabaab forces in October 2012--a victory that many experts say
strategically crippled the jihadi group. "Taking Kismayo has been viewed as
the endgame, at least in the military phase of [AMISOM's] mission," writes
James Verini in Foreign Policy. "The city was al-Shabaab's base and the port
its economic engine, providing an estimated $35 million to $50 million a
year to the group."
Is al-Shabaab recruiting Americans?
Al-Shabaab has recruited members of the Somali-American diaspora in recent
years, a trend the FBI has described as a top domestic terrorist threat. In
particular, the group has attracted several radical volunteers from
Minneapolis, MN, which is home to the largest Somali population in the
country. Young Minnesotans, such as Shirwa Ahmed and Farah Mohamad Beledi,
the first two confirmed U.S. suicide bombers, traveled to Somalia to receive
al-Shabaab training and wage jihad.
Another prominent leader for al-Shabaab was Omar Hammami (aka Abu Mansoor
Al-Amriki), a native of Alabama, authorities say. Hammami had reportedly
fallen out with the group as of late 2012. Other Somali-American recruits
have come from Ohio, California, Virginia, New Jersey, and New York,
according to a list compiled by the Anti-Defamation League.
What is U.S. policy in Somalia?
Washington's primary interest in Somalia has been preventing it from
becoming a refuge for terrorist groups like al-Shabaab to plot attacks on
the U.S. homeland and potentially destabilize the strategically significant
Horn of Africa, where longstanding disputes among Ethiopia, Eritrea, and
Somalia still fester. In recent years, U.S. officials have also been wary of
collaboration amongst the militant Islamist organizations in the region,
including al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
The United States, stung by the loss of eighteen U.S. servicemen in the
Battle of Mogadishu in 1993 (aka the "Black Hawk Down" incident), has
largely relied on the use of proxy forces in Somalia in recent years. Since
2007, analysts say Washington has provided more than half a billion dollars
to train and equip African Union forces battling al-Shabaab. Much of this
indirect logistical support has been supplied on the ground by State
Department-funded contractors, such as Bancroft Global Development and
DynCorp.
Drone strikes and special operations raids on al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda
targets have rounded out the U.S. strategy. Military analysts have
characterized the Pentagon's approach in Somalia as "offshore balancing,"
which emphasizes the use of U.S. air and sea assets in conjunction with
support for local counterinsurgency proxies, such as AMISOM.
