Video: Kenya attack prompts fears Al Shabaab is on the rise (Photo: AFP) (ABC News)
Photo: Somali men carry weapons during a demonstration organised by Al-Shabaab in 2010. (File picture). (AFP: Abdurashid Abikar)
Related Story: Somalia's Al Shabaab hits back with a vengeance
With Kenya's military saying it has successfully freed most of the hostages who were trapped in a shopping mall during a siege carried out by members of Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab, we take a closer look at the Somali terrorist group.
Al Shabaab is a Somali, clan-based insurgent and terrorist group. The name translates to "The Youth" in Arabic.
The members of Al Shabaab come from disparate groups and the agenda of the organisation is not centralised. However, it does impose its own version of Islamic law, which includes dress regulations and public mutilations.
The group's attacks have been focused on the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), the African Union Mission in Somalia (AUMIS), aid organisations and perceived allies of the TFG.
Al Shabaab's members are generally not supportive of global jihad.
What is the group's history?
Al Shabaab emerged out of an insurgency fighting against Ethiopia, when its troops entered Somalia in a 2006 US-backed invasion to topple the Islamic Courts Union that was in control of the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
It is the militant wing of the Somali Council of Islamic Courts. In 2008 the US named Al Shabaab a foreign terrorist organisation and a designated global terrorist entity. In 2011 the group blocked the delivery of aid during the famine that killed tens of thousands of Somalis. The following year a merger between Al Shabaab and Al Qaeda was publicly announced.
Who are Al Shabaab's leaders?
The group's senior leadership has been linked to Al Qaeda and is believed to have trained in Afghanistan.
- Ahmed Abdi Aw-Mohamed, 34, is named by the US National Counterterrorism Centre as the founder of Al Shabaab. He has been responsible for the group's operations in Somalia and has served as a channel for financing the organisation. In 2007 he claimed the group was responsible for the assassination of a judge in Somalia. He also organised attacks on Ethiopian troops in Somalia during the same year.
- Bashir Mohamed Mahamoud, 51, is a military commander of the group. The US National Counterterrorism Centre says he has been responsible for Al Qaeda activity in Somalia since 2007. The Somali national was in charge of a mortar attack against the TFG in Mogadishu in 2009.
- Mukhtar Robow, 44, has served as a spokesperson, spiritual leader and military commander for the group. He was in command of forces that attacked government bases, Ethiopian forces and peacekeepers in Mogadishu in 2007. He and former leader Aden Hashi Ayrow (now deceased) were jointly responsible for a suicide attack at a TFG checkpoint that killed eight people in 2006.
Photo: Residents evacuate an injured man from the scene of a suicide attack in Somalia's capital Mogadishu in October 2011. (Reuters: Omar Faruk )
What attacks has Al Shabaab carried out?
Al Shabaab has claimed responsibility for many attacks in Mogadishu and central and northern Somalia. Its attacks have focused on the TFG and its perceived allies, AUMIS and aid organisations. The group has assassinated peace activists, international aid workers and journalists.
In June 2013 the group carried out a complex attack on the United Nations base in Mogadishu. A suicide commando used car bombs and suicide attacks to blast their way into the compound before starting a gun battle to the death. The attack on the UN used similar tactics to an earlier one on a Mogadishu courthouse in April, which killed 34.
Earlier this month the group killed 18 people in a popular Mogadishu restaurant.
In 2010 Al Shabaab was responsible for twin bombings in Kampala, Uganda that killed 74 people who were watching the World Cup in a restaurant.
Also in 2011, the group claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in Mogadishu, when a truck bomb killed at least 65 people at a government building.
The rebels said this weekend's Nairobi attack was in direct retaliation for Kenya's military operations in Somalia.
Source: United States National Counterterrorism Centre
