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al-Shabaab
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al-Shabaab

Somali-based terrorist group
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Also known as: Ḥarakat al-Shabāb al-Mujāhidīn, al-Shabab
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Last Updated: • Article History
Quick Facts
Somali:
“the Youth”
Also spelled:
al-Shabab
Arabic in full:
Ḥarakat al-Shabāb al-Mujāhidīn
Date:
2006 - present
Areas Of Involvement:
terrorism
See all related content

News •

Al Shabaab battles Somalia's army for control of strategic military base • Apr. 24, 2025, 3:39 AM ET (Reuters)
Al Shabaab captures strategic Somalia town as it presses offensive • Apr. 17, 2025, 5:43 AM ET (Reuters)
Al Shabaab attacks strategic Somalia town as it presses offensive • Apr. 17, 2025, 5:43 AM ET (Reuters)
KDF, GSU repulse ‘Shabaab’ ambush on Boni Forest camp • Apr. 7, 2025, 4:28 AM ET (Nation.Africa)

al-Shabaab, Somali-based Islamist militant group with links to al-Qaeda. Beginning in 2006, the group waged an insurgency against Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG). Al-Shabaab originated as a militia affiliated with the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a federation of local and clan-based Islamic courts that had been founded in southern Somalia in 2004 to combat the lawlessness and banditry afflicting the area since the collapse of the government of Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. From about 2004 this militia acted as an armed wing of the ICU, incorporating fighters from the disbanded Somali militant Islamist group al-Itihaad al-Islamiyyah as well as ...(100 of 732 words)

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