Kenya: How Our Government Rescued Al-Shabaab

opinion

In October 2013, a month after the Westgate Mall attack, the same elite American Seal Team Six that had killed Osama bin Laden attacked a house in Barawe, Somalia. They planned to snatch an al Shabaab terrorist called Abdulkadir Mohammed Abdulkadir aka Ikrima. A fierce firefight ensued and the Seal team withdrew empty-handed. Ikrima, rumoured to be an exceptionally bright al Shabaab planner and strategist, speaks six languages and is the architect of many of the most ambitious moves of the group. Ikrima also happens to be Kenyan.

The incident served to illustrate the intensity of the battle against extremist terror that continues in the shadows in the region and which involves a range of security agencies from multiple countries. The contingent of Kenyan citizens in al Shabaab has grown from around 10 per cent in 2010 to over a quarter today. Additionally, these Kenyan jihadists have now firmly turned their attention to the homeland.

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