Al-Qaeda-aligned terrorist group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for a
suicide bombing last week that targeted Somali intelligence and security head


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Al-Shabaab Continues Terror Attacks, Further Disrupting Somalia's Elections

 

(New York, N.Y.) — Al-Qaeda-aligned terrorist group al-Shabaab claimed
responsibility for asuicide bombing
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last week that targeted Somali intelligence and security headquarters, leaving
at least 10 dead and dozens of others injured. The bombing is thesecond deadly
assault
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on security forces to occur in Mogadishu in recent weeks, occurring less than
a month after an al-Shabaab operativetargeted
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the General Dhega Badan military training school, killing 10.

 

The latest attack comes just three days after Somali Prime Minister Mohamed
Hussein Roble announced a timeline for parliamentary and presidential
elections, both of which have been delayed over disagreements on how to conduct
the voting. Should the elections occur, it will be the first direct multi-party
elections in Somalia since 1969. Under the current plan, elections for the
Senate and parliament will take place from mid-July through September, with the
presidential election on October 10. The frequency of al-Shabaab attacks has
increased this year in an effort to disrupt the electoral process. Its
unrelenting insurgency is aimed at overthrowing the Somali central government.

 

Al-Shabaab regularly carries out suicide bombings against civilian and
government targets. In May, another al-Shabaab suicide bomber blew himself up
in front of a district police station in Mogadishu, killing six police officers
and wounding six others. According to regional experts, delayed elections
within Somalia as well as the withdrawal of U.S. troops have enabled al-Shabaab
insurgents to carry out attacks more readily in both Somalia and neighboring
Kenya.

 

To read the Counter Extremism Project (CEP)’s Al-Shabaab resource, please click
here <[link removed]>.

 

To read CEP’s Somalia resource, please click here
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