...... Somalia's version of the Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
in Africa.
The Somalia-based terrorist group is said to have many foreigners within its ranks, and even at a leadership level.
Influenced by what they read, mostly online, they joined the organization to fight the Somali government and its Æthiopian allies.
The current number of imported muscle in Somalia is unclear but in 2011, it was reported that there were even US citizens in the mix, mostly of Somali descent.
One report stated that the group recruited over 40 Americans and 20 Canadians to battle in Somalia.
Foreigners were recruited to serve as mercenaries and as propaganda tools because of their ability to speak English, for radicalization and recruitment.
But according to an article by David Shinn in 2010 for the US-based Foreign Policy Research Institute, top leaders then included those from Saudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century..., Pakistain, Algeria, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan, and Uganda.
"Al-Shabaab has developed one of the most effective recruitment programs found among Death Eater Islamist groups.
"It has been particularly successful in the large Somali diaspora in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Africa, and Australia," he wrote.
The presence of foreigners, according to many analysts, has been both a boon and bane to al-Shabaab because it has led to differences and conflicts among the rank and file.
According to the National Counterterrorism Center in the US, in-fighting and shifting alliances were common.
"So, the desertion of Ahmad Mustakim in 2015 came as no surprise as he probably could not take the constant bickering inside the group.
"But he was arrested and tossed in the clink
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
for his attempt," a source added. Intelligence updates have indicated that al-Shabaab is now led by Ahmed Umar, also known as Ahmed Diriye and Abu Ubaidah, with a US$6mil (RM25mil) bounty following the death of Ahmed Abdi Godane in a US
...
KABOOM!...
in 2014.