Terror in Nairobi: Behind al-Shabaab's War With KenyTerror in Nairobi:
Behind al-Shabaab's War With Kenya
By Ishaan Tharoor <
http://world.time.com/author/itharoor/> _at_ishaantharoor
<
http://www.twitter.com/ishaantharoor>
Sept. 22, 2013
<
http://world.time.com/2013/09/21/terror-in-nairobi-behind-al-shabaabs-war-w
ith-kenya/#comments> 17 Comments
A swanky, high-end mall in Nairobi is the site of a deadly standoff between
Kenyan forces and fighters linked to the al-Qaeda-backed Somali terror group
al-Shabaab. On Saturday, gunmen burst into the mall, tossing grenades
<
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/21/nairobi-shopping-centre-terror
-attack> "like maize to chickens" and indiscriminately targeting shoppers
enjoying their weekend. At least 68 people are reported dead, including an
unspecified number of foreign nationals, and more than 175 injured.
According to reports, the gunmen shouted in Swahili that Muslims would be
allowed to leave; all others appeared subject to their slaughter. At the
time of writing, an estimated 10 to 15 militants are still holding an
unknown number of hostages inside the ritzy Westgate. The Kenyan
government's crisis center
<
https://twitter.com/NDOCKenya/status/381562200156303360> tweeted in the
early hours of Sunday morning that "major operations" were still "underway,"
and the Associated Press
<
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/attackers-remain-kenya-mall-after-killing-39
> reported that a large explosion rocked the mall on Sunday afternoon.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who claimed to have lost "very close family
members" in the attack,
<
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/nairobi-mall-shooting-westgate-shopping-
centre-al-shabaab-uhuru-kenyatta-kenya/1/311068.html> spoke defiantly,
saying "we have overcome terrorist attacks before. We will defeat them
again." The <
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-24191606> BBC confirmed
al-Shabaab's role in the strike late Saturday night. Before
<
http://www.twitter.com/HSM_Press> its Twitter account was suspended,
al-Shabaab had assumed responsibility for the attack, justifying the
massacre as a response to the presence of Kenyan troops in Somalia. A
timeline of its tweets during the attack can be read
<
http://pastebin.com/r19mt6um> here, including a chilling remark that "There
will be no negotiations whatsoever at #Westgate." Here's what you need to
know about al-Shabaab and its war with Kenya.
What is al-Shabaab?
The group, whose name means "the Youth" in Arabic, was once the militant
youth wing of a coalition of Islamist forces that held sway in parts of
Somalia more than half a decade ago. The country has had no real functional
central government for over two decades and the Islamists, for a time,
provided a veneer of security and stability despite the harshness of the
Shari'ah law they sought to impose. That control slipped following a series
of offensives spearheaded by the African Union, beginning with an
Ethiopian-led invasion in 2006. In early 2012, a video emerged of a top
al-Shabaab leader <
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15336689>
pledging obedience to Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's head. Over the past half
decade, foreign fighters, including some Americans, have streamed in to join
al-Shabaab's ranks, which are believed to number in the thousands. But,
shorn of an urban base, the group has been forced to resort to guerrilla
tactics. It has also been beset by
<
http://world.time.com/2013/09/12/omar-hammami-u-s-born-jihadi-rapper-report
ed-killed-by-fellow-militants-in-somalia/> internal divisions and
internecine fighting.
What is Kenya's role in all of this?
Al-Shabaab fighters had launched a number of minor forays across Somalia's
porous southern border with Kenya, kidnapping tourists and aid workers. By
2011, after al-Shabaab impeded humanitarian aid into southern Somalia during
a ghastly drought, the Kenyan government had had enough. It launched a
sustained military campaign across the border, eventually dislodging
al-Shabaab from its stronghold in the Somali port city of Kismayo in 2012, a
defeat from which the group has yet to recover. The continued Kenyan
military presence in Somalia rankles the militants, who have
opportunistically tried to champion the cause of Muslims elsewhere in East
Africa as well as ethnic Somalis living in Kenya. Such a deadly strike
abroad is not without precedent for this terrorist group: in 2010, bombs
planted by al-Shabaab killed dozens watching the soccer World Cup in the
Ugandan capital Kampala-supposed punishment for Uganda's contribution to the
African Union peacekeeping forces stationed in Somalia.
Why target a mall?
The strike on the Westgate mall, a soft target teeming with civilians,
carries echoes of
<
http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1864035,00.html> the 2008
attack by Pakistani-based militants on some of the ritziest hotels in
Mumbai, India's coastal metropolis. In both cases, gunmen invaded places
frequented by the well-heeled and well-traveled and carried out
indiscriminate slaughter. The goal is to shock, to draw attention to a
militant group's boldness and capability, and to hit panic buttons in the
government of the country under attack. From being a faction in disarray and
retreat, al-Shabaab has rewritten the narrative with the blood of innocents.
It's back.
How dangerous is the threat?
Once Kenyan forces defeat the remaining militants in the mall, scrutiny will
fall first on the security lapses that surrounded this horrific attack.
Expect, also, greater global hand-wringing about terrorist threats in East
Africa and beyond. Al-Shabaab's continued activity is seen alongside that of
other jihadist outfits in Africa - including Nigeria's Boko Haram and
al-Qaeda's North African wing. In 2012,
<
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18592789> U.S. military officials
warned that these organizations were deepening their ties with each other
and possibly coordinating their actions. Aggressive military campaigns in
recent years against all these terrorist groups-the Nigerian army on Boko
Haram; the French on al-Qaeda-backed militants in Mali; the African Union on
al-Shabaab-have been unable to fully root any of them out. And, as the
strike on the Westgate mall shows, extremist violence knows no borders.
Received on Sun Sep 22 2013 - 20:08:30 EDT