Kenya: Attacks have weakened Somali rebels

The Kenyan military said saturday that its operations in Somalia have weakened al Shabaab, the Islamist insurgent group, and cut off its key sources of funding. “In our own assessment, 75% of revenue collection of al Shabaab has been disrupted,” said Colonel Cyrus Oguna, according to Capital FM radio in Nairobi. Kenyan troops entered southern Somalia about four months ago, after a spate of kidnappings on its territory which Nairobi blamed on al-Shabaab. On Thursday, al Shabaab announced it was merging with Al Qaeda, a move analysts say was brought on by the current financial and military weaknesses of both groups and their loss of support. Al-Qaeda suffered major losses in 2011, with its founder Osama bin Laden killed by US special forces in his hideout in Pakistan in May, and its spiritual leader Anwar al-Awlaki, a US-born radical Islamist cleric, killed in a US airstrike in Yemen in September. Questions have been raised on whether current leader Ayman al-Zawahiri can hold the group together. However, the US-based IntelCenter, which monitors terrorist groups, said: “This (merger) is a significant development and further enhances the threat posed by Al-Qaeda and its regional arms throughout Africa but also the threat those groups networks pose in the US and other Western countries.” The merger might also be a sign of rifts within Al Shabaab, with a more hardline faction keen to join the global network, while others within the group preferring more distance. There have long been links between the two terrorist groups, but the Somali group has had a more domestic agenda aimed at fighting the western-backed government in Somalia, rather than adhering to the global goals of Al Qaeda. “Our Al Qaeda brothers were already here in Somalia and have been fighting alongside with us since 1993,” Al Shabaab leader Ahmed Godane, considered to be part of the more radical faction, told pro-insurgent Radio Andulus on Friday. Somali Prime Minister Abdiwali Mohamed Ali said: “You know this group was not acting on behalf of the interests of Somalis but was doing the work of Al Qaeda.” Al Shabaab’s insurgency against the internationally backed government began in 2007. Last year, it was ousted from the capital Mogadishu by African Union forces and in recent weeks lost bases near the borders with Ethiopia and Kenya. It still controls vast swathes of territory in southern Somalia. Kenyan air strikes and ground raids had cut off Shebab’s trade routes and drove them from key towns where they conducted business. In retaliation, the Shebab have carried out grenade attacks and abductions in areas near the porous Kenya-Somalia border, killing and wounding several people.