Fazul Abdullah Mohammed

December 18, 2024 | Caleb Weiss |

Jihadi history: Kenyan detainee transferred out of Guantanamo shows the extent of Al Qaeda’s jihad in East Africa

The US Department of Defense (DoD) announced yesterday that longtime Guantanamo Bay detainee Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu was transferred to his native Kenya. The Ugandan-born Kenyan national...

January 12, 2023 | Bill Roggio, Caleb Weiss

State places $10 million bounty on Kenyan Shabaab commander

Just a few days after placing a similar bounty on Maalim Ayman, the head of Shabaab’s Kenyan military wing, the U.S. State Department’s Rewards for Justice Program is now also offering $10 million for...

April 28, 2015 | Thomas Joscelyn

“Terrorism in Africa: The Imminent Threat to the United States”

Download full testimony here ...

January 5, 2015 | Bill Roggio The Long War Journal

US Targets ‘Senior Leader’ for Shabaab in Southern Somalia

The US military confirmed that its aircraft launched an airstrike against a "senior leader" of al Qaeda's branch in Somalia. "The strike took place in the vicinity of Saakow, Somali...

October 15, 2013 | Thomas Joscelyn

Anas Al-Liby’s Pakistan Qaeda Connection

The recent counterterrorism raids in Libya and Somalia highlight a fundamental flaw in the U.S. Government’s analysis of al Qaeda. A common misconception is that there is a distinct, fixed...

July 10, 2012 | Thomas Joscelyn The Long War Journal

Detained UK Suspect Trained by Shabaab

An alleged al Qaeda operative has been detained in London after "crossing through the Olympic Park five times," the Sunday Telegraph (UK)...

February 12, 2012 | Thomas Joscelyn, Bill Roggio The Long War Journal

‘We in MYC are Now Part of al Qaeda East Africa’

The Muslim Youth Center, Shabaab's affiliate in Kenya, said it has become "part of al Qaeda East Africa." The statement was made just one day after al Qaeda and Shabaab formalized their long...

February 12, 2012 | Thomas Joscelyn

Al Qaeda’s Unsurprising Merger

Several years ago, I was having drinks at an Irish bar with an intelligence official. (Al Qaeda is always best discussed while drinking Guinness.) He had brought with him several pages of publicl...

February 9, 2012 | Bill Roggio, Thomas Joscelyn The Long War Journal

Shabaab Formally Joins al Qaeda

Shabaab and al Qaeda have announced their formal merger, according to a video disseminated online today and translated by the SITE Intelligence group. In the video, Mukhtar Abu al Zubayr (a.k.a....

January 23, 2012 | Bill Roggio The Long War Journal

British Shabaab Operative Killed in Airstrike in Somalia

Shabaab said that a British national who was "from the early people who came to jihad in Somalia" was killed in a US drone airstrike. The slain operative was a senior al Qaeda leader in East Afri...

January 13, 2012 | Bill Roggio The Long War Journal

Shabaab Names New Leader of Kenyan Branch

  Shabaab, al Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia, has designated a radical Kenyan preacher who has advocated jiha...

December 14, 2011 | Bill Roggio The Long War Journal

Jihadist Releases Bio of Yemeni al Qaeda Operative Killed in Somalia

A jihadist released a martyrdom statement for a seasoned al Qaeda operative who waged jihad in Bosnia, Dagestan, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia; escaped from a prison in Yemen; and tra...

June 15, 2011 | World Defense Review

Eritrea: The Horn of Africa’s Rogue Regime

Last week, exasperated with Eritrea's continued violations of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and its increasing harassment of representatives at the American Embassy in Asmara...

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...

February 1, 2011 | J. Peter Pham World Defense Review

Somalia in Need of New Approach Two Decades after State Collapse

Last week marked the twentieth anniversary of the night when Mohamed Siyad Barre, president of the last entity that could plausibly be described as the government of Somalia, fled Mogadishu in hi...

December 6, 2010 | Bill Roggio The Long War Journal

Yemeni al Qaeda Commander Reported Killed in Mogadishu Clash

An al Qaeda commander from Yemen who led a group of foreign fighters battling the Somali government and African Union forces was reported killed in Mogadishu. The commander, Rajah Abu Kh...

October 12, 2010 | The Long War Journal

Brother of Notorious al Qaeda Operative Denied Habeas Petition

On Oct. 7, DC District Judge Reggie Walton's decision denying Guantanamo detainee Toffiq Nasser Awad al Bihani's petition for a writ of habeas corpus was released to the public. Al Biha...

September 20, 2010 | Bill Roggio The Long War Journal

Suicide Bomber Detonates Inside Somalia’s Presidental Compound

A Shabaab suicide bomber entered the presidential compound in Mogadishu today and detonated his vest. The suicide bomber penetrated security at the main gate of the base as an African Un...

September 11, 2010 | The Long War Journal

Is ‘Constructive Disengagement’ the Solution in Somalia?

On Thursday, Joshua Foust published an article at PBS's Need to Know that, though avoiding the term "constructive disengagement," mirrors the arguments advanced by Bronwyn Bruton's repo...

July 15, 2010 | Shlok Vaidya The Long War Journal

Uganda attack carried out by Shabaab cell named after slain al Qaeda leader

Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan. Click to view. The top leader of Shabaab said that the deadly attacks in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, were carried out by a cell named after an al...