Rallies in recognition of Al-qaeda-shebab alliance
Gun-toting Shebab insurgents have staged rallies across Somalia to celebrate their group’s recognition by Osama bin Laden’s successor as a member of the Islamist Al-Qaeda network. “The unification of Al-Shebab with Al-Qaeda breaks the hearts of the enemy,” Shebab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage told a crowd of several hundred in rebel-held Afgoye, just outside Somalia’s war-torn capital Mogadishu.
“At least 600 people gathered carrying placards supporting the unification of the two groups -- people chanted Allahu Akbar “ said Abdikarin Adan, a witness. “Businesses were shut after Shebab fighters in cars with loudspeakers ordered people to attend the demonstration,” said Mohamed Sufi, another witness. Several demonstrations also took place across Shebab-held southern Somalia including the port city of Merka, where the extremist gunmen ordered people to shut down businesses to attend the rally.
Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri announced in a video message posted on jihadist forums last week that Shebab fighters had joined ranks with the Islamist network. Shebab insurgents, fighting to overthrow the weak Western-backed government in the war-torn Horn of Africa country, proclaimed their allegiance to then Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in 2009.
Shebab fighters still control large parts of central and southern Somalia but are facing increasing pressure from regional forces, with Kenya in the far south, Ethiopia in the south and west, and African Union troops in Mogadishu.
Somalia’s embattled government -- which controls only Mogadishu with 10,000 AU troops from Uganda, Burundi and Djibouti – said they would respond to the latest development. “The Somali government will not take lightly the danger from their official union and will put all its forces, as well as the general public, on the highest alert.” The government also repeated its call for the lifting of a United Nations arms embargo so it can “defend the country.”
There are about 200 foreign fighters in Somalia with the Shebab, Britain’s Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies said in a report earlier this month. However, analysts have warned previously that Al-Qaeda faces significant challenges operating in Somalia, with its lack of resources, basic infrastructure and potential hostility from rival clan-based power structures.
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