Five Killed in Al Shabaab Attack on Police Headquarters

Five people have been killed and 20 wounded outside of Somalia’s Criminal Investigation Department headquarters in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu when two jihadists tied to Al Shabaab drove explosive-ladened cars into the gates of the building and five gunmen stormed the compound. All five of the attackers were killed, but not before they shot and killed a Somali soldier; the explosion also killed four civilians.

This is the second Al Shabaab attack in the past week. On July 26^th, two vehicles packed with explosives detonated near Mogadishu Airport, killing numerous United Nations and African Union security officers; 13 people, three of which were civilians, were killed. Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack through their Andalus News agency, the second largest radio station for the group. The latest strike is typical of Al Shabaab attacks: this modus operandi was seen in previous hotel bombings and in a recent attack on a military outpost.

Al Shabaab, which is an affiliate of Al-Qaeda, has also carried out strikes in neighboring Kenya and Uganda. Most notably, the group orchestrated an attack on Nairobi’s Westgate Shopping Center in 2013 that killed 67 people. The group controls large parts of Somalia but no longer has control over Mogadishu, from which it was expelled in 2011 by a coalition of African Union and United Nations troops. In its areas, it has strictly enforced Sharia Law.

Somalia, considered to be in “Very High Alert” by the Fragile State Index, is divided by a number of factions. Al-Shabaab operates freely in three separate pockets in the south of the country, but its territory is split by strips controlled by the U.N and African Union coalition. To the north is the Ethiopia-backed Federal Government of Somalia, the officially recognized government. Somalia has been inching toward stability since 2012, when a new internationally-backed government was put in place. The government controls Mogadishu but still faces challenges from Al-Shabaab insurgents.

The Somali government is also allied with the government of Puntland, a semi-autonomous state in the north of the country.

To the west is Somaliland, a self-proclaimed territory declared in 1991 after the fall of military dictator Siad Barre. The territory has its own currency, infrastructure, and constitution but is not recognized by any countries.

Al-Shabaab, continues to posess the ability to inflict attacks on the Somali capital at will, in an effort to destabilize the U.N and AU-backed government. Al Shabaab also continues to inflict attacks on Ethiopian troops in the north. The Mogadishu attacks have not succeeded in securing territory but have continued to put pressure on the Somali government and its allies.

Yet despite a number of successful airstrikes, efforts to bring stability to Somalia continue to meet setbacks as Al Shabaab maintains its operational tempo.

In addition to providing Al Qaeda a base of operations in East Africa, the presence of Al Shabaab poses a challenge to the security of Gulf of Aden, given Somalia’s strategic position at the horn of Africa and Al Shabaab’s close ties to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. As a result, stability in Somalia must remain a goal of the U.S. and its counterterrorism partners.