Its notable that the Islamist militants has upscaled its attacks with more than ten attacks being claimed for the capital Mogadishu. In the past few days, the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Shabaab has claimed more than attacks from across the districts of Mogadishu.
On August 13th, Al-Shabaab claimed multiple attacks from across the districts of Mogadishu. At least four people were wounded after grenade attacks took place in at least eight districts of Mogadishu, Banadir region of Somalia on Thursday. Local sources indicate that at approximately 19:00 local time, the headquarters of Dharkenley, Wadajir, Waberi, and Karan districts were attacked with grenades. Simultaneously, the Bondhere, Dayniile, Garasbaaley, Hodan, Shibis, and Yaqshid sub-district headquarters were also attacked with grenades. Reports indicate that at least one soldier and three civilians were wounded. At least two people have been arrested in the Shibis district and investigations are ongoing. Al-Shabaab Islamist militants claimed responsibility for the attacks.
On August 16th, Al-Shabaab another deadly attack on Elite hotel in Liido beach in Abdulaziz district in Mogadishu. Initial reports indicate that the Islamist fighters gained access inside the hotel before a car bomb exploded at the entrance and a fierce gun battle with security forces ensued. According to police sources, at least 16 were killed and more than 28 others were wounded during the assault.
While the security forces successfully ended the siege on a popular beach hotel in Mogadishu and killed all the militants, its noteworthy of the consistent warnings by S.I. of Al-Shabaab resurgence in the capital Mogadishu after a notable lull mostly that has been necessitated by the current pandemic of coronavirus. The pandemic in the past two to three months has seen few people gather thus target for the Islamist militants had become elusive.
Lock-down constraints have now been eased in almost all the East African countries. Sizeable numbers are able to meet as compared to the aforementioned past period. This is a scenario S.I. had discussed in a number of its previous briefs that, once some normalcy returns, the Al-Qaeda militants in Somalia will highly likely upscale it attacks and hit the media headlines again.
In the past few days, this has come to happen in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu where the militant group through its claims boasted to have staged a wave of bombings in more than ten districts of Mogadishu. The group propaganda media to justify the brutal killings and acts claims attacks saying it was targeting joints (especially hotels) which are favorite for senior Federal government officials and their allied partner forces.
This might just be a beginning on what Al-Shabaab has planned, and its should be a wake-up call to joint CT-actors realign their military strategies and counter Al-Shabaab decisively before what is being witnessed in the Somalia’s capital is replicated in all other regions where Al-Shabaab still maintains large territorial control.
