On Sunday 13th October at around 1500hrs EAT, the Al-Qaeda branch in Somalia, Harakat Shabaab Mujahideen (HSM) fired approximately 6 rounds of long range mortars targeting the Halane Military and Diplomatic complex in the capital Mogadishu. Halane complex is the headquarters of the United Nations Mission in Somalia (UNMIS) and African Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). It also houses several embassies including the British. The shelling left 3 AMISOM soldiers, 4 construction workers, and 1 International staff member injured. The injuries, as per intelligence sources, weren’t life threatening.
The mortars targeted various sections of the complex. The Jazeera Gate area suffered a hit while Phase 5, and 7B also took hits. Another shell struck the AMISOM Level 2 Hospital where the injured were treated. The UN-GU Perimeter suffered a hit while the last shell struck the general area outside Aden Adde Airport, the main airport in Somalia.
Assessment
It is notable, from the recent-past events that the Al-Qaeda branch in Somalia, Harakat Shabaab Mujahideen (HSM), is surging in Somalia. The capability to deploy various asymmetrical warfare strategies is exerting significant military pressure on both American, Italian, Somali, and AMISOM troops in Somalia. The capability to identify each of these actors and targeting them precisely demonstrates capability to collect actionable intelligence and exploiting it robustly, a tradecraft the Counter Terrorism Players must adopt as well.
The terror group’s asymmetrical warfare strategies have a psychological warfare element. The ability to conduct attacks targeting multiple targets successfully demonstrates to CT-actors in the region the terror groups rank and file strength is not only uniformly trained and equipped, but large and well led. This perspective has a psychological effect on conventional military troops, the main CT actors in theater, the enemy strength remains robust, thus more needs to be done despite the continued exploitation of conventional weapons and battlefield tactics.
The attack at Halane is an indicator, the group remains a consistent threat and that it morphs to adapt to multiple conventional warfare strategies and modern battlefield tactics. CT Partners should exploit these small setbacks to optimize success against the terror group. CT-Ops lackluster will significantly expose the East African region to extremism and jihadists since Somalia is a terrorist haven and the Al-Qaeda affiliate Harakat Shabaab Mujahideen has retained the ability to carry out high-profile attacks using vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs), suicide bombings, mortars, and small arms against CT-Operators.
