By William Tucker
Garowe Online is reporting that senior al-Shabaab commander Dahir Gurey was recently killed during the fighting in Mogadishu. The death of senior commander is hardly grounds for celebration as fighting has continued as evidenced by the suicide bombing at the Mogadishu airport. The Garowe story is interesting in that claims of al-Shabaab’s have been substantial since the ‘Final War’ was declared a few weeks ago. In the midst of these losses fighting continues and TFG representatives are concerned over the influx of foreign fighters into Somalia.
Each player involved in the Somali conflict has their own interests to consider and each report must be taken with a grain of salt. That being said al-Shabaab is the indigenous force in Somalia and the foreign jihadists that have moved to the country will bring needed experience to the militant group. The situation is Somalia is of the utmost concern to neighboring countries and those that have contributed troops to the AFRICOM force in Mogadishu have a greater interest in mitigating militancy in the Horn of Africa. Nations such as Uganda, which has deployed several thousand troops to Somalia, have expressed the desire to send more if the US provides funding. If this goes through the window created by political uncertainty in AFRICOM will be mitigated and complicate matters for the al-Shabaab offensive.
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