Mogadishu--Somalia's Shebab militants are divided over whether to maintain their allegiance to Al-Qaeda or shift to Islamic State, according to militant and security sources, analysts and clan elders.
The division comes at a time when Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has become the jihadist franchise of choice, attracting fighters from abroad and other militant groups such as Boko Haram in Nigeria, while Al-Qaeda too has recently expanded its territory in Yemen.
"Why is it a surprise to hear that Shebab may join the Islamic State? All Muslims have to unite against their enemy," said a Shebab commander, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity.
The commander said Shebab "would be more than happy to join forces to strike the enemy of Islam harder".
The admission comes at a time when Shebab is under pressure militarily but remains able to launch guerilla and terror attacks, seemingly at will, against civilian targets in Somalia and Kenya.
This month Shebab killed 148 people, mostly students, during an armed assault on a university in Garissa, northeastern Kenya, while suicide bombers and gunmen have attacked hotels and a restaurant in Mogadishu and a United Nations minibus in the northern Somali town of Garowe.
Garissa echoed the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi, with just four gunmen and multiple accounts of the singling out of non-Muslims for murder, a tactic also used in Shebab attacks on a bus and quarry in Mandera, Kenya, late last year.
But Garissa was both Shebab's most deadly and most brutal attack yet. The gunmen herded scores of young non-Muslim men and women into a university hall of residence. They were made to lie side-by-side on the courtyard floor and executed.
It was an assault worthy in its thirst for blood of IS, which has distinguished itself through mass executions, many of which are recorded and distributed online.
AFP
