Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia

July 9, 2012 | Thomas Joscelyn The Long War Journal

2 Eritrean Officials Designated for Supporting Shabaab

The US Treasury Department designated six supporters of Shabaab, al Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia, on July...

June 15, 2011 | World Defense Review

Around the Troubled Horn

Even by the much-reduced expectations of the subregion, the news emanating from the geopolitically-sensitive, but ever-volatile Horn of Africa has not been at all good these last few weeks....

June 14, 2011 | World Defense Review

Somalia Still Sinking as Eritrea Entertains Enemies

September has not been a good month in the sometime Somali capital of Mogadishu, even by the relative standards of a failed state that has not had an effective central government in the sixteen y...

June 14, 2011 | World Defense Review

Winds of War Blow Along Ethiopia-Eritrea Border

Two months ago in this column space, I warned that "a little-known border conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia is rapidly escalating and threatens to not only the peace of the neighborhood,...

July 14, 2010 |

Al Shabaab’s Grim Milestone In Uganda

Bad as the twin blasts that rocked the Ugandan capital of Kampala on Sunday were—and with a death toll of at least 74, they represent a considerable tragedy—the overall carnage could...

June 16, 2010 | Max M. Kampelman The Long War Journal

Hizbul Islam faction in southern Somalia defects to Shabaab

An important Hizbul Islam faction in southern Somalia has broken away from t...

May 1, 2010 | Bill Roggio Long War Journal

Top Shabaab commander targeted in Mogadishu mosque bombings

Forty Shabaab fighters and supporters were killed in a pair of bombings today that targeted a top Shabaab military commander at a mosque in the Bakara market in Mogadishu. The first bomb...

November 4, 2009 | CTR Vantage

Understanding al-Shabaab

By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Madeleine Gruen The advance of Islamist groups in Somalia is seen as a cause for concern by Western law enforcement and...

October 22, 2009 | Middle East Quarterly

The Strategic Challenge of Somalia’s Al-Shabaab

Since emerging from an era of colonialism under Italy and Britain, Somalia has passed through military dictatorship, famine, and civil war to regional fragmentation. In the modern period, America...

March 26, 2009 | Dr. J. Peter Pham Family Security Matters

Bin Laden’s Somali Gambit

Last week, al-Qaeda chieftain Usama bin Laden interjected himself yet once again into the ongoing conflict in the territory of the former Somali Democratic Republic. On closer examination, the mo...

February 28, 2008 |

Will divisions undermine Somali rebellion?

By mid-2007, when the fighting in Somalia was routinely described as an "Iraq-style insurgency," victory seemed likely for the extremist Islamic Courts Union. But rifts within the insurgency that were simmering last year may now have reached a boiling point, providing a strategic opportunity for Somalia's transitional federal government (TFG) and its Ethiopian allies.