Officials: Al-qaida group in Somalia threatens Americans in East Africa, even those in U.S.

Al-qaida’s branch in Somalia, the terrorist group’s largest and most active global affiliate, has issued specific new threats against Americans in East Africa and even the United States, U.S. commandos, counterterrorism officials and intelligence analysts say.

Several ominous signs indicate that the al-qaida affiliate, al-shabab, is seeking to expand its lethal mayhem well beyond its home base and attack Americans wherever it can; threats that have prompted a recent flurry of U.S. drone strikes in Somalia to snuff out the plotters.

In recent months, two al-shabab operatives have been arrested while taking flying lessons; one last summer in the Philippines and another more recently in an African country, intelligence officials said. Al-shabab fighters are seeking to acquire Chinese-made, shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles.

American commanders are hardening defenses at bases in the region after an al-shabab attack in January at Manda Bay, Kenya, killed three Americans and revealed serious security vulnerabilities.

That attack came about a week after an explosives-laden truck blew up at a busy intersection in Mogadishu, the Somali

capital, killing 82 people. Al-shabab also claimed responsibility for that attack.

The strike in Kenya came two months after al-shabab released a 52-minute video narrated by the group’s leader, Abu Ubaidah, in which he called for attacks against Americans wherever they are, saying the American public is a legitimate target. The statement mirrored Osama bin Laden’s declaration of war against the United States in 1996.

“Shabab is a very real threat to Somalia, the region, the international community and even the U.S. homeland,” Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, the head of the military’s Africa Command, told a House committee in Washington this month.

Al-shabab controls large parts of Somalia and raise considerable funds through local taxation and extortion.

The threat from al-shabab has increased so sharply that last November, Townsend created a Special Operations task force with about 100 troops and analysts to focus on shoring up security in Somalia and countering al-shabab.

The United States has carried out 31 strikes against al-shabab militants already this year, and is on pace to nearly double the previous high of 63 last year. That compares with 47 strikes against al-shabab in 2018.