With deep regional history and local roots, abundant manpower, and a deep weapons arsenal, Al-Qaeda’s Al-Shabaab branch is one of the world’s most powerful, dynamic, and capable militant organizations. Despite setbacks resulting from ramped-up pressure and offensive efforts by the US-backed Somali government and local militia forces, Al-Shabaab has demonstrated its long reach and sustained operational capacities by staging a string of large-scale terrorist attacks in the capital city of Mogadishu while continuing to strike throughout Somalia, parts of Kenya, and even into Ethiopia.

Al-Shabaab’s battlefield prowess, durability, and ardent devotion to the cause of toppling the Somali government and those of neighboring countries – according to their own rhetoric - and establishing an Islamic system according to the group’s vision of Islamic rule have drawn high praise from AQ leadership.