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1 1 (January 16, 2020)

handle is hein.crs/govbcxv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: FF.ri E.$~ & p\w -- , gnom go mppm qq\ , q I as 11LULANJILiN, Updated January 16, 2020 Al Shabaab Al Shabaab (aka Harakat Al Shabaab Al Mujahidin, or Mujahidin Youth Movement) is an insurgent and terrorist group that emerged in the mid-2000s amid a vacuum of state authority in Somalia. The group evolved out of a militant wing of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which took control of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, in 2006. Neighboring Ethiopia, which backed Somalia's nascent transitional government, intervened militarily to oust the UIC. Al Shabaab used historical anti-Ethiopian sentiment among Somalis to attract recruits and support, including among the diaspora in the United States. Al Shabaab held much of south-central Somalia, including Mogadishu, from the late 2000s until the U.N. -authorized African Union (AU) Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) gained momentum against the insurgency in 2011-2012. Despite its territorial losses and the formation of a new federal government in Mogadishu in 2012, Al Shabaab has retained control or influence over large areas of the country. See also CRS Report IF10155, Somalia. Al Shabaab has waged an asymmetric campaign against the Somali government, AMISOM, and foreign targets in Somalia. By conservative estimates, it has killed over 4,000 civilians since 2010. Its deadliest attack to date, an October 2017 truck bombing in Mogadishu, killed more than 500 people. While the group has focused primarily on Somalia, it also threatens the countries participating in AMISOM and has conducted attacks in Uganda, Djibouti, and Kenya. The group's activity in Kenya, where it has killed hundreds, has increased since Kenya's 2011 military intervention in Somalia (Kenya joined AMISOM in 2012). Al Shabaab's assault on a university in northeast Kenya in 2015, which killed at least 147 people, was the deadliest terrorist attack in the country since the 1998 U.S. embassy bombing by Al Qaeda (AQ). Attacks on international targets in Kenya have raised Al Shabaab's profile, notably the 2013 Westgate Mall siege and the 2019 assault on the DusitD2 hotel complex in Nairobi. On January 5, 2020, Al Shabaab killed a U.S. soldier and two U.S. contractors during a raid on Manda Bay Airfield, a Kenyan military facility used by the U.S. military near the Somali border. Al Shabaab's recruitment abroad, including among U.S. citizens, has concerned U.S. officials. The group's ties with other major terrorist organizations, most notably Al Qaeda and its Yemen affiliate, as well as its demonstrated capacity to strike international targets in East Africa, elevate its prominence among extremist groups on the continent. Ahmed Diriye (aka Abu Ubaidah), a Somali national, has led Al Shabaab since 2014, when he succeeded Ahmed Abdi Godane, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike. Godane's predecessor was killed in a 2008 U.S. missile strike. Infighting arose under Godane, who had consolidated power by assassinating rivals in the organization, reportedly including American jihadist Omar Hammami in 2013. Some prominent commanders left the group or surrendered to local authorities in exchange for amnesty during this time. Diriye, who was part of Godane's inner circle, has maintained allegiance to Al Qaeda, amid defections by a small number of fighters to the Islamic State (IS/ISIS). Some of Al Shabaab's founding members trained with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and senior AQ operatives in East Africa, including Fazul Mohammed-the late mastermind of the U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania have been associated with the group. After expressions of allegiance to Al Qaeda in Al Shabaab's early years, the groups announced a formal affiliation in 2012. While Al Shabaab's leaders appear to broadly share Al Qaeda's transnational agenda, the group appears to operate independently. It maintains ties with other AQ affiliates, particularly Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). In 2015, some Al Shabaab members pressed for the group to shift allegiance to the Islamic State. Al Shabaab leadership rejected the proposal and launched a deadly crackdown against IS supporters. A small IS faction in northern Somalia survived the purge and has persisted, but Al Shabaab remains the dominant group. Al Shabaab broadly ascribes to a vision of uniting ethnic Somali-inhabited areas of Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Somalia under an Islamist government. Its leaders have also repeatedly expressed their commitment to global jihad. The group has justified attacks outside Somalia as retaliation against countries conducting military operations in Somalia and as retribution for alleged abuses against Muslims. Al Shabaab described its attacks on Manda Bay Airfield and the DusitD2 complex in Kenya as consistent with AQ directives to target U.S. and Israeli interests, while also referring to the airfield as one of the launch pads for the American crusade against Islam in the region. Al Shabab's activities in Kenya more broadly appear focused on sowing internal dissent and fomenting a domestic insurgency. Non-Muslims have been specifically targeted in some of the group's attacks in Kenya. Operations by AMISOM and neighboring countries pushed Al Shabaab from Mogadishu and other urban centers and ports between 2011 and 2014. Al Shabaab's area of territorial control has remained largely unchanged since 2015, when AMISOM ceased major offensive operations, although the nascent Somali army with AMISOM support has recovered some new areas in the past year. Al

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