Al-Shabaab

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Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen (HSM) (Arabic: حركة الشباب المجاهدين‎; Ḥarakat ash-Shabāb al-Mujāhidīn, "Mujahideen Youth Movement" or "Movement of Striving Youth"), more commonly known as al-Shabaab (Arabic: الشباب‎, "The Youth" or "The Boys"), is a militant Islamist group. As of 2011, the outfit controls large swathes of the southern parts of Somalia,where it is said to have imposed its own strict form of Sharia law. Al-Shabaab's troop strength as of May 2011 is estimated at 14,426 militants.

Foreign intervention, specifically the December 2006 Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, had a profound effect on al-Shabaab’s rise. Al-Shabaab was the militant wing of the Somali Council of Islamic Courts that took over most of southern Somalia in the second half of 2006. They were the only military force willing to resist the Ethiopians following the collapse of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), due to the invasion al-Shabaab was able to recruit thousands of nationalist volunteers by playing on deep-seated Somali antipathy toward Ethiopia. Al- Shabaab – a clan based insurgent and terrorist group- has continued its violent insurgency in southern and central Somalia. The group has exerted temporary and at times sustained control over strategic locations in southern and central Somalia by recruiting, at times forcibly, regional sub-clans and their militias, using guerilla asymmetrical warfare and terrorist tactics against the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia and its allies, African Union peacekeepers and non-governmental aid organizations. Al-Shabaab describes itself as waging jihad against "enemies of Islam". Alleging ulterior motives on the part of foreign organizations, group members have also reportedly intimidated, kidnapped and killed aid workers, leading to a suspension of humanitarian operations and an exodus of relief agents.

Terrorist designation

The outfit has been designated a terrorist organization by several western governments and security services. It is linked to Al Qaeda, an association which the group's leaders denied until early 2010. Al-Shabaab is designated as a terrorist group by Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. On the 29th of February 2008 the US government designated al-Shabaab as a Foreign Terrorist Organization under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224.