Al-Shabaab in Somalia

Since early 2007 a new breed of combatants has appeared on the streets of Mogadishu and other towns in Somalia: the ''Shabaab'', or youth, the only self-proclaimed branch of al-Qaeda to have gained acceptance (and praise) from Ayman al-Zawahiri and ''AQ centre'' in Afghanistan. Itself an offshoot of the Islamic Courts Union, which split in 2006, Shabaab has imposed Sharia law and is also heavily i...