A website affiliated with Shabaab celebrated a Somali-American from Seattle as one of the suicide bombers who conducted a complex assault against the African Union peacekeeper base in Mogadishu last week. The suicide bombers easily entered the AMISOM military compound while driving two white vehicles with United Nations markings. “We thought they were real UN […]
Abu Mansur al Amriki (standing, background) at the Abu Suleim camp in Somalia. Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera has some interesting news on the covert raid conducted by US Special Forces, dubbed Celestial Balance, that targeted an al Qaeda leader in Southern Somalia on Sept. 14th. According to a local stringer for the newspaper, […]
“Use suicide attacks to kill them,” al Qaeda-linked Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys said during a sermon, referring to African Union troops.
Two Shabaab suicide bombers drove cars with UN markings into an AMISOM compound in Mogadishu and detonated their explosives as senior African Union and Somali leaders met.
Nabhan fires a rifle in a videotape produced by al Qaeda’s media arm. Image by Nick Grace. Click to view. Daniele Raineri, an Italian journalist who writes for Il Foglio and a friend of The Long War Journal, passed along a tip about the commando raid that resulted in the death of Saleh Ali Saleh […]
US special operations forces have conducted four other such strikes in Pakistan, Syria, and Madagascar since 2006.
Reports indicate Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan was killed during a covert raid by US Special Forces in Barawe, a town in Southern Somalia under the control of Shabaab.
Image of a Shabaab fighter from the terror group’s website. The disturbing trend of US citizens being killed while fighting for al Qaeda-linked Shabaab in Somalia continues. From The Media Line, the fifth US citizen was killed during fighting in Mogadishu over the weekend: Al Shabaab fighters said Mohamed Hassan, a 21-year old American from […]
Hizbul Islam leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys told a crowd in Mogadishu that plans for a merger are moving forward.
The senior Shabaab military commander has close links to al Qaeda.
More than 20 people, including the security minister and the former ambassador to Ethiopia, were killed in a suicide attack in central Somalia.
Ahmed Abdi Aw Mohamed was wounded in an explosion during a meeting on the outskirts of the Somali capital. An unconfirmed report speculated he was killed.
Shabaab and the allied Hizbul Islam are consolidating control of central and southern Somalia and are ousting Islamist forces loyal to President Sharif, their former ally.
The information minister for Shabaab in the southern Somali city of Kismayo welcomed Osama bin Laden’s call to remove Somalia’s new president and said the group would continue its links to al Qaeda.
Al Qaeda’s leader praised Shabaab and called for the downfall of the government led by former Islamic Courts leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed. This is the third tape on Somalia released by senior al Qaeda leaders since Feb. 13.
Yasin Ali, a leader in Hizbul Islam, and two other Swedish citizens were arrested for funneling money to Shabaab but were freed after prosecutors had insufficient evidence to convict.
Four high-level US officials discussed the terrorist threat emanating from Somalia, as well as the Somali terrorist recruiting network on American soil, this week. The officials confirmed that al Qaeda and its allies are growing stronger by the day in East Africa.
The latest al Qaeda tape on Somalia was released one day after two suicide bombers killed 15 Burundi soldiers in Mogadishu. Zawahiri also calls on Islamists to fight President Sharif’s government.
Sheikh Sharif Ahmed is elected president by the newly expanded parliament. Sharif led the conquest of southern Somalia in 2006.
The al Qaeda affiliate moved into the southern town of Baidoa after Ethiopian forces pulled out, ending a two-year occupation.