Al-Shabab's years of terror
After years of operating with brutal violence, al-Shabab is on the defensive
In this photo of Thursday Feb.17, 2011 an Al-Shabab fighter stands with his gun during military exercises on the outskirts of Mogadishu,Somalia. The Somali government promised fighters valuable rewards if they deserted from the Islamist rebels group battling for control of the country: good salaries; education; health care.Farah Abdi Warsameh/The Associated Press
Bashe Abdi Godane is the 54-year-old brother of Ahmed Abdi Godane, the shadowy leader of Somalia's biggest terrorist group, al-Shabab. His mother's house in Hargeisa, the capital of the self-proclaimed nation of Somaliland, was raided by police commandos in early May, and two of his brothers were taken into custody without charges. Bashe Godane says he hasn't seen Ahmed for many years and he disagrees with his extremist views.Geoffrey York/The Globe and Mail
In this photo taken Wednesday, July 4, 2012, al-Shabab defectors Mohamed Saeed, 18, left, and Abdiqadir Mohamed, 17, right, are interviewed by The Associated Press in Mogadishu, Somalia. Military officials in Somalia say defections from the militant group are accelerating as Somali and African Union troops take new territory and a government-run program in Mogadishu houses several hundred former fighters, many of them teenagers, though such defectors risk retaliatory assassinations from fighters still loyal to the militia.Abdi Guled/The Associated Press
Hard-line Islamist al-Shabab fighters conduct military exercise in northern Mogadishu's Suqaholaha neighbourhood, Somalia, Sunday Sept. 5, 2010. The group’s senior officials said the young fighters have recently completed training to join what they said to be a global war against the enemy of Allah.Farah Abdi Warsameh/The Associated Press
This Nov. 4, 2008 photo shows members of Somalia’s al-Shabab jihadist movement seen during exercises at their military training camp outside Mogadishu. Training camps in the lawless nation of Somalia are attracting hundreds of foreigners, including Americans, and Somalis recruited by a local insurgent group linked to al-Qaeda, according to local and U.S. officials. American officials and private analysts say the camps pose a security threat far beyond the borders of Somalia, including to the U.S. homeland.Anonymous/The Associated Press
This Nov. 4, 2008 file photo shows members of Somalia’s al-Shabab jihadist movement during exercises at their military training camp outside Mogadishu. Training camps in the lawless nation of Somalia are attracting hundreds of foreigners, including Americans, and Somalis recruited by a local insurgent group linked to al-Qaida, according to local and U.S. officials. American officials and private analysts say the camps pose a security threat far beyond the borders of Somalia, including to the U.S. homeland.The Associated Press
FILE - This Dec. 8, 2008 file photo shows armed fighters from Somalia's al-Shabab jihadist movement traveling on the back of pickup trucks outside Mogadishu. Training camps in the lawless nation of Somalia are attracting hundreds of foreigners, including Americans, and Somalis recruited by a local insurgent group linked to al-Qaida, according to local and U.S. officials. American officials and private analysts say the camps pose a security threat far beyond the borders of Somalia, including to the U.S. homeland.Farah Abdi Warsameh/The Associated Press
A Kenyan police officer stands along the border with Somalia and Kenya near Sinai, in July, 2009. Kolbio, a stronghold of al-Shabab, is located directly on the other side. A thin, dusty line is about the only thing separating Kenya, one of the Western world’s closest allies in Africa, from al-Shabab, a radical Islamist militia that has taken over much of southern Somalia, beheading detractors, stoning adulterers and threatening to kill any Americans or Europeans who get in their way. Kenya is widely seen as a frontline state against the Islamist extremism smoldering across the Horn of Africa. And while few expect the Shabab to make good on their threats to march en mass across the border, the creeping fear, the one that keeps the security staff at Western embassies awake at night, is that they or their foreign jihadist allies will infiltrate Kenya and attack some of the tens of thousands of Westerners living here, possibly in a major terrorist strike like al-Qaeda did in 1998.Dominic Nahr/The New York Times