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2020-01-08 Africa Horn
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Al-Shabab attack on US air base in Kenya signals resurgence
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 [DW] The Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab
...... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
overran a US military air base in Kenya on Sunday, killing several people. The group's bold offensive shows it is recovering after suffering high casualties from US dronezaps.
The al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab Death Eater group on Sunday attacked Kenya's Manda Bay Airfield, a military base that houses US and Kenyan troops. al-Shabaab claimed the attack destroyed US equipment, including aircraft and vehicles.
Continued from Page 2
The attack killed three American Department of Defense personnel, Kenya and US authorities said on Monday. Five attackers were killed, according to Kenyan military front man Paul Njuguna.
It is the first time that al-Shabaab has carried out an attack against US forces in Kenya.
"These attacks mean that al-Shabaab gunnies are still powerful not only in Lamu but in the whole region bordering Somalia," George Musamali, a Kenyan security analyst, told DW.
CROSS-BORDER ATTACKS
Although based in Somalia, al-Shabaab frequently launches terror attacks in other African countries, most notably in neighboring Kenya. It has struck there more than 20 times in the past five years, killing at least 300 people.
"The group has stepped up its tactics, selecting high-profile targets in the country over the last two months," said Mohammed Odowa, a DW correspondent based in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
"Al-Shabaab has increased its capabilities to even hit beyond the borders of Somalia. What they did in Kenya against the US Army base indicates it has now a clear objective to make its operations very strong, selective and promptly executed by its fighters and from Kenya and Somalia," Odowa said.
More recently, al-Shabaab carried out several serious attacks against government officials and against civilians in Somalia itself. In December 2019, 79 people were killed and 149 injured when a truck bomb detonated at a busy intersection in Mogadishu ‐ the deadliest attack in the country in more than two years.
The attack resembled another in October 2017 when a double truck bombing occurred at a busy crossroads in Mogadishu and killed nearly 600 people.
Airstrikes by the US in Somalia increased in 2019, with American planes carrying out 52 attacks on the gunnies in the war-torn country. However,
alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk...
while it's difficult to assess the true impact of Arclight airstrike
 ...KABOOM! ...
s, Odowa said al-Shabaab's hold on its territory remains strong.
The increasing airstrikes under the Trump administration have crippled the group's activities but have not been able to force it to capitulate. "Al-Shabaab still controls large swathes of rural areas in central and southern Somalia," Odowa said.
EXTORTED MONIES
Backed by African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
and Ottoman Turkish troops, the Somali Army has liberated key towns from the Death Eaters, but the group sometimes retakes those towns immediately afterward because of the government's inability to securely govern them.
Almost a decade after African peacekeeping forces pushed the group out of Mogadishu, it became versatile in guerrilla tactics and manufacturing bombs. Over the past few years, it has assaulted an American military base outside Mogadishu and overrun military bases of the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
Al-Shabaab is fighting to oust the Somali government and establish a society based on a rigid interpretation of Islamic Sharia law. The frequency of its attacks signals the group's resurgence backed by a tight stream of revenue, Odowa said.
"Al-Shabaab collects payments from people, including companies, through extortion and intimidation. If you have a business in Somalia, you should pay them otherwise your business will be blown out. It finances its operations through a kind of forced taxation from the public," Odowa said.
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF POLITICAL WRANGLING
The federal government, on the other hand, still relies heavily on donors who are overstretched and increasingly reluctant to continue pouring cash into the protracted war.
Somalia heads to the polls in 2020 for the first time in over 50 years. A one-person, one-vote system will replace the traditional clan-based power-sharing system.
However,
alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk...
the central government in Mogadishu is locked in internal wrangling with governments of the federal states. al-Shabaab is taking advantage of this confusion and infighting to reposition itself, Odowa said.
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Posted by trailing wife 2020-01-08 00:00||
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File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)
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