ASSESSMENTS

Somalia: Al Qaeda and Al Shabaab

May 5, 2008 | 20:32 GMT

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Summary

In the predawn hours of May 1, a U.S. AC-130 Spectre gunship dispatched from a nearby airbase destroyed a house in central Somalia where members of the Islamist militant group al Shabaab were meeting. Killed in the attack were two militant leaders: Aden Hashi Ayro, a senior member of al Shabaab and al Qaeda's military commander in Somalia, and Sheikh Muhyadin Omar, a senior al Shabaab commander. The two have direct links to al Qaeda prime and a long history of terrorism in the Horn of Africa. The May 1 incident, in conjunction with a multitude of other factors, raises the question of how connected al Qaeda and al Shabaab have become in Somalia and what the implications of that relationship are.

The Somalian militant group al Shabab's relationship with al Qaeda -- and the implications of that relationship -- bears examination....

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