An intelligence report has revealed that Kenyan-born Al Shabaab leader, Ahmed Iman, is contemplating to quit the terror group after major fall-out with its leadership.
The report says the Imam wants to quit the group and its activities after he became disgruntled with the persistent killing of Kenyan fighters within the group’s ranks.
The dossier further notes that the spate of elimination and execution of Kenyans and other foreign fighters has brought a sharp division within Al Shabaab leading to hatred towards native Somalis.
“The Al Shabaab video and online propagandist, Ahmed Iman Ali fell-out with its leadership. It is reported he is negotiating his way back from Somalia. It is not, however, clear if he stands a chance of making it from Somalia considering that Al Shabaab kills whoever attempts to leave. Iman has been very vocal against the execution of foreign fighters and is now weighing out his options,” the report.
It further adds: “Some Al Shabaab leaders are, however, wary of losing Iman within the ranks as he has proven to be a good propaganda tool through his videos which he does with charisma taunting AMISOM forces in fluent Swahili.”
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Iman is the leader of ‘Jaysh Ayman’. He has been instrumental in recruiting youth into terrorism and orchestrating attacks in Kenya.
The split is further accelerated by the battle on whom to pledge their allegiance to with one group led by former UK-based Abdul Qadir Mumin, who swore allegiance to ISIS in December 2015 immediately becoming target of exclusion. Al Shabaab has always pledged its allegiance to Al Qaeda.
Online war
Al Shabaab’s intelligence wing (amniyaat) has on several occasions targeted the pro-ISIS splinter group whose top commanders have been executed alongside their fighters.
There has been an online war of words on Twitter where ISIS linked page, Jabha East Africa, blamed Al Shabaab of killing and imprisoning their leaders and fighters.
The Al Shabaab and ISIS supremacy war was put to test during the Mogadishu October attack where more than 350 civilians were killed and several others injured.
Even though none claimed responsibility, it is evident that the pro-ISIS group were rescarried out the attack to show Al Shabaab on how strong they are in executing suicide bombings.
When contacted, the Somalia Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Abdirahman Omar Osman said that the government has come up with a Comprehensive Approach to Security (CAS) architecture in consultation with stakeholders and international partners.
“We now have plans to scale down AMISOM forces so that Somalia forces can take over the security of our country. We are optimistic We Africans are not good at publicising our successes and if this mission would have been in Western, the whole world would have known the success,” Osman said. The minister said the October attack in Mogadishu was an act of desperation because the Somalia military and AMISOM are winning.
Largest number
The Information minister insists that his security counterpart is committed to implementing initiatives that include stabilisation of security within Mogadishu and removal of heavy guns from the city’s streets.
