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Table of contents

Kenya’s 26/11 at Westgate mall

Kenyan troops rescue 1,000 people, but at least 59 dead 04

Photos from the mall attack 05Nairobi eye-witness: Civilians barricaded themselves in shops, theatres 09

The Indian connection to the tragedy

Nairobi tragedy, then Indian red tape: Ordeal of victim’s kin 11Kenya mall attack: Pregnant Indian RJ among victims 13Nairobi mall attack: Malayalam lm crew escapes by a whisker 14

Nairobi attack: A list of victims who died in Westgate mall 15

Who were the attackers

Who are al Shabab, the Islamist terror group that attacked 19 Al Shabab: Who are its Al Qaeda leaders, Western faces, foreign commanders 21Nairobi mall attack: Who is the ‘white widow’ and is she involved? 23

After Nairobi attack, Al Shabab could emerge more vociferous than ever 25

Kenya attacks: US under pressure to mount action against al-Shabab 27

What India can learn

Is this Nairobi’s 26/11? Striking parallels with Mumbai attack 30Nairobi terror attack: Lessons India should learn 32Nairobi mall attack: How can we prevent such attacks in India? 35Lessons from Nairobi: Why India is not ready for the next 26/11 37

The impact on Nairobi and Kenya

Westgate massacre: Remembering a happy Nairobi 41My Nairobi: Remembering the people who made Westgate special 43

Will Nairobi terror attack spell doom for Kenya’s economy? 44

Terrorism in cyberspace

Outside Westgate mall, al-Shabab, police battle it out on Twitter 46Live tweeting terror: How al-Shabab broadcast their attack on Twitter 48Demolition by Kenyan forces killed 137 in Westgate mall: Al Shabab 51

http://www.firstpost.com/youspeak/business/nris-will-not-gain-much-from-rupee-fall_3563.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/youspeak/business/rupee-at-60-why-foreigners-must-invest-in-india-now_3585.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/economy/imf-growth-cut-policy-flip-flop-india-has-lost-its-credibility-to-foreign-investors-945773.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/economy/rupee-free-fall-higher-fuel-prices-inflation-to-pinch-harder-940895.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/economy/india-is-screwed-no-matter-what-rbi-does-on-rupee-907963.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/economy/india-is-screwed-no-matter-what-rbi-does-on-rupee-907963.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/economy/india-is-screwed-no-matter-what-rbi-does-on-rupee-907963.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/economy/the-rupee-will-slide-to-70-to-the-usd-if-rbi-hikes-rates-910067.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/investing/rupee-fall-may-bring-back-middle-east-nri-realty-investors-939081.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/economy/rupee-free-fall-higher-fuel-prices-inflation-to-pinch-harder-940895.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/economy/rupee-at-60-heres-why-india-is-a-steal-for-foreigners-right-now-941033.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/economy/rupee-at-60-heres-why-india-is-a-steal-for-foreigners-right-now-941033.htmlhttp://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/21/witness-to-a-massacre-in-a-nairobi-mall/?_r=3http://www.firstpost.com/world/what-new-delhi-should-learn-from-the-nairobi-terror-attack-1125889.htmlhttp://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/08/al_qaeda_leaders_pla.php#ixzz2fnnskvV6http://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/al-shababs-western-recruitment-strategyhttp://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/al-shababs-western-recruitment-strategyhttp://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/08/al_qaeda_leaders_pla.php#ixzz2fnnskvV6http://www.firstpost.com/world/what-new-delhi-should-learn-from-the-nairobi-terror-attack-1125889.htmlhttp://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/21/witness-to-a-massacre-in-a-nairobi-mall/?_r=3http://www.firstpost.com/economy/rupee-at-60-heres-why-india-is-a-steal-for-foreigners-right-now-941033.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/economy/rupee-at-60-heres-why-india-is-a-steal-for-foreigners-right-now-941033.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/economy/rupee-free-fall-higher-fuel-prices-inflation-to-pinch-harder-940895.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/investing/rupee-fall-may-bring-back-middle-east-nri-realty-investors-939081.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/economy/the-rupee-will-slide-to-70-to-the-usd-if-rbi-hikes-rates-910067.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/economy/rupee-falls-below-60-india-in-deeper-pain-get-ready-for-a-rough-ride-909115.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/economy/india-is-screwed-no-matter-what-rbi-does-on-rupee-907963.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/economy/india-is-screwed-no-matter-what-rbi-does-on-rupee-907963.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/economy/india-is-screwed-no-matter-what-rbi-does-on-rupee-907963.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/economy/rupee-free-fall-higher-fuel-prices-inflation-to-pinch-harder-940895.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/economy/regulators-toughen-fx-derivative-rules-as-rupee-slide-sparks-panic-940739.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/economy/imf-growth-cut-policy-flip-flop-india-has-lost-its-credibility-to-foreign-investors-945773.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/youspeak/business/rupee-at-60-why-foreigners-must-invest-in-india-now_3585.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/youspeak/business/nris-will-not-gain-much-from-rupee-fall_3563.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/


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Kenya’s 26/11 at Westgate mall

http://www.firstpost.com/


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Kenyan troops rescue 1,000people, but at least 59 dead Associated Press, September 22, 2013

K enya's interior Cabinet secretary saysat least 59 people were killed and 175 wounded in the attack by al-Qaida-

linked militants at an upscale mall in Nairobi.

Joseph Lenku said Sunday that about 1,000people have been rescued so far from the West-gate mall.

The gunmen remain inside with hostages nearly24 hours after they launched the attack with

grenades and assault ri es.

Lenku said that there are 10 to 15 attackersinvolved. He said that Kenyan forces havecontrol of the security cameras inside the mall.Combined military and police forces have sur-rounded the building.

The Somali militant group al-Shabab claimedresponsibility for the attack, and targeted non-Muslims.



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Photos from the mall attack

WARNING: Some of the images are graphic and

disturbing.

At least 39 people were killed and more than 150wounded in a deadly 26/11 style assault on a Nairobi

top Mall by Islamist terror group al Shabab. Witnessessaid at least ve gunmen — including at least one

woman — rst attacked an outdoor cafe at Nairobi’sWestgate Mall, a shiny, new shopping center thatincludes Nike, Adidas and Bose stores. The attack

began shortly after noon with bursts of gun re and grenades. At least two Indians are among the dead,

with another six injured. These are photographs of the rescue efforts and of the carnage wrought inside the

mall by the attackers.

Injured people cry for help after gunmen went on a shooting spree in the Westgate mall in Nairobi:Reuters



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Some of the victims of the Nairobi terror attack: Reuters

Security of cers guide civilians out of the Nairobi Westgate mall which was attacked by militants:Reuters



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People run with their children to safety in the Westgate mall which was attacked by terrorists:Reuters

Civilians escape an area at the Westgate Shopping Centre in Nairobi: Reuters



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Security of cers enter the Nairobi Westgate mall in a bid to ush out the terrorists that attacked it,killing at least 39 people: Reuters

Mall employees leave their shops to safety: Reuters



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Nairobi eye-witness: Civilians barricaded themselves in shops, theatres

The biggest challenge faced by the military forces

while countering the terror attack in Nairobi’sWestgate Mall was the lack of knowledge about eitherthe number of gunmen present or where they were

camping inside the mall, said Tyler Hicks, a photojournalist with The New York Times, who

entered the mall with the security forces anddocumented the events unfolding inside for two hours.

FP Staff, September 22, 2013

T he biggest challenge faced by the militaryforces while countering the terror attackin Nairobi's Westgate Mall was the lackof knowledge about either the number of gun-men present or where they were camping insidethe mall, said Tyler Hicks, a photojournalist with The New York Times, who entered the mall with the security forces and documented theevents unfolding inside for two hours. In an in-

terview to the NYT, Hicks said that he was in anadjacent mall when the terrorists attacked themall. He immediately moved to Westgate andentered the premises with the security forces.

He said that he didn't spot any terrorist in histwo-hour stay but came across several injured

civilians and bodies of those who had died inthe attack. The priority of the security forces, hesaid in the interview, was to rescue the civiliansstuck inside and then move from one section ofthe mall to another.

Hicks said:

"Military forces didn’t know where the mili-tants were, so they continued to sweep throughlooking for them. Of course, there was theconcern of I.E.D.’s or that they would throw agrenade or shoot. In the shopping mall, therewas an endless amount of places that theycould hide or potentially attack from."

He added that several of the people trapped in-side the mall had set up barricades themselvesand were hiding inside shops, inside cafes andmovie theatres and the injured were wailing forhelp.

He said that the nature of these attacks aresame everywhere - be it Afghanistan, Pakistanor Kenya - and unarmed civilians fall prey tothese terrorists in the same ways. Describingthe scene inside the mall he said:

"There were many civilians who had barri-caded themselves inside shops, inside the movietheater, inside restaurants, inside a beautysalon — it seemed like everywhere you went,there were more people who just appeared outof the woodwork."

Read Tyler Hicks' complete interview here .

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/21/witness-to-a-massacre-in-a-nairobi-mall/?_r=3http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/21/witness-to-a-massacre-in-a-nairobi-mall/?_r=3http://www.firstpost.com/


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The Indian connection to the tragedy



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Nairobi tragedy, then Indian red tape: Ordeal of victim’s kin

In the forty-eight hours before Sanjivi Natarajan’sdeparture to pick up his brother’s body from Nairobi,where he was a victim of the mall hostage crisis, he faced extraordinary trauma - the consequence not

just of the agonising news, but a bizarre bureaucraticbarbed-wire fence that could only have been

built in India.

Apoorva Dutt, September 24, 2013

Early this morning, Chennai residentSanjivi Natarajan left for Nairobi on oneof the most painful missions anyone can

have: to collect the body of his brother, Sridhar,killed in the terrorist attack on the Westgatemall. He is scheduled to be received at Nairobiairport by Indian embassy staff, who are alreadycaring for Sridhar Natarajan's wife, Manjula, who is in critical care at a city hospital.

In the forty-eight hours before Sanjivi Natara- jan's departure, though, he faced extraordinarytrauma - the consequence not just of the agonis-ing news the family had received from Nairobi, but a bizarre bureaucratic barbed-wire fencethat could only have been built in India.

"We started planning on getting Sanjivi to Nai-robi Sunday night," says a family member, whodid not want to be named, to Firstpost.

According to the family, the Ministry of Exter-

nal Affairs did not contact them, so they madetheir own arrangements. Sanjivi initially tried toleave at 4.30am on Monday morning on a Qatar

ight. But at the airport, he was stopped be-cause he had not taken a vaccination for yellowfever.

"We began contacting of cials, and we were toldthat he should arrive at the Port Of ce for vac-cinations at any time Monday morning," saysthe relative.

"But when he reached there, the of ce was shut.It turned out that the of cials had forgotten totell them to keep the clinic open for him," therelative said.

Sanjivi was told that he could only be vaccinatedon Wednesday, which would be much too late.

"When he came back home, he got a call at3.30pm, saying he should come back to theof ce for his vaccination, but now with a sparepassport holder-since the rules mandate thattwo people must be travelling for a vial of yel-low fever vaccine to be opened," said the familymember.

"Firstly, this back-and-forth at such a time ofcrisis in inconvenient to say the least. He hadfamily matters to take care of. There were logis-

tical reasons that he could not go for this," hesaid.

The confrontation erupted into "heated words,"recounts the family member.



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"The Ministry of External Affairs has insistedto the media and everyone else they speak tothat they are doing everything for us, but thisis not true," said the relative."They told us that we were being 'high-maintenance', even thoughthey were doing everything to help us."

Sridhar and his wife had moved to Nigeria ve years ago and later shifted to Kenya after he gota job with a pharma rm in Nairobi. The otherIndian who died in the attack was identi ed asParamshu Jain, the 8-year-old son of a bankerin Nairobi.

Finally after much hue and cry the Director ar-ranged for a spare passport holder to show uppro-forma, and Sanjivi is now hoping to leaveat 4.30am on Tuesday morning. "We are hop-ing there are no more goof-ups at the Nairobiairport," says the relative.

Manjula has already undergone one surgery,and is currently critical but stable. She is sched-uled for several more macrofacial surgeries overthe coming week.

"There has been very little information ow-ing from the Ministry of External Affairs," says

the relative. "We have had to do everything forourselves. Their reaction has been shoddy, tosay the least."

Ministry of External Affairs of cials told First-post that they felt deeply for the family, andhad done all they could to help. However, oneof cial said, a maze of rules created by what hecalled "a nanny state" meant the MEA itself hadto work overtime to clear the bureaucratic maze.

"Look," he said, "we should not have a shortageof yellow fever vaccine, but we did, and there'snot a lot the MEA can do about it. The Chen-nai health of cials cited norms forbidding themfrom using a vial from the limited stock of vac-cine for just one person, and we didn't have theauthority to overrule them. And perhaps thedoctors should have waited longer for Sanjivi, but that's again not something the MEA can doanything about."

Finally, the of cial said, the MEA contactedthe Indian Embassy in Nairobi, who said they would arrange for vaccination on Sanjivi's ar-rival - and requested immigration authorities toexempt him from the vaccination requirement,something that technically was outside theirpower.

Later, though, immigration authorities raisedthe prospect that Sanjivi might have beenstopped in transit at Doha - leading the MEA tomake a second, and nally successful, attemptto get the vaccination done by Chennai's healthauthorities.

The thing is, the rules themselves make nosense. First, yellow fever vaccine takes a mini-mum of ten days to kick in. This means Sanjivi will be unprotected from the disease while he isKenya, shot or no shot. Secondly, the vaccina-tion is meant to protect India from the diseasespreading here, not Kenya, where it alreadyexists. Thus, the vaccination certi cate is actu-ally needed on return from a yellow-fever zone,not when going to one. Yet, Indian immigrationrules mandate that it be checked for outboundtravellers as well - and don't provide for emer-

gency exemptions. Ironically, the certi cate isnot checked for many passengers from yellowfever zones returning to India, since they transitthrough third countries where the disease isn'tendemic.

Fascinatingly, World Health Organizationguidelines say vaccination is not recommendedfor travellers to Nairobi, since the disease is notendemic there.

Put simply, Sanjivi was put through huge har-assment for no discernible health bene t, sim-ply because of a bureaucratic rule no-one hadthe power to overturn. Needless to say, the rules would likely have been waived if he'd been a well-networked VIP.

And that says something very depressing aboutour country.



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Kenya mall attack: PregnantIndian RJ among victims

Ruhila Adatia-Sood, a popular media personality ofIndian origin, was among the 69 people killed by the

Islamist militants.

PTI, September 24, 2013

R uhila Adatia-Sood, a popular mediapersonality of Indian origin, was amongthe 69 people killed by the Islamistmilitants.

Ruhila was in the rooftop car park of Westgatemall as part of a team hosting a cooking compe-tition for small children at the time of the at-tack.

She was married to Ketan Sood, who works for

USAid in Nairobi, and was pregnant, mediareports said. Ruhila was a presenter on Radio Africa media group's East FM and hosted en-tertainment news on Kiss TV, E-News, Kiss 100and X-FM.

On her Twitter account, Ruhila described her-self as a "food lover, thrill seeker and a bungee jump away from sanity". In a post on her blog,she confessed to her love for Indian food. She wrote, "It might have something to do with thefact that I am Indian...."

Her radio presenter colleague, Kamal Kaur, washelping with the cooking competition and wasat the event with her two young children whenthey all came under attack from a gunman.

"Then he (the attacker) came out again with his big ri e. My daughter kept whispering to eve-rybody, 'Pretend you're dead! He won't shoot...

pretend you're dead'.." Kaur was quoted as say-ing by BBC.

Kaur and her children managed to escape."Ruhila was six months pregnant and she losther life and we're very devastated about that..."

Another Indian man, pretending to be a Mus-lim, tried to escape when the attackers calledout for Muslims to identify themselves and

leave, British newspaper The Guardian a wit-ness Joshua Hakim as saying. "An Indian mancame forward and they asked, 'What is the nameof Muhammad's mother?' When he couldn'tanswer, they just shot him," Hakim said.



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Nairobi mall attack: Malayalamlm crew escapes by a whisker

Three members of the crew, including the director,cameraman and associate director, had visited the

mall barely an hour before the attacks.


A Malayalam movie crew which wasshooting in Nairobi could have beentrapped in the terrorist attack on the Westgate Mall, but for an overcast sky.

Three members of the crew, including the direc-tor, cameraman and associate director, had vis-ited the mall barely an hour before the attacksto identify appropriate locations within the building. They spent an hour in the mall till theyreceived a call from the lead actor of the movie

Indrajith asking them to get back home before it

rained, according to a report in Malayala Mano-rama.

Within half an hour of their leaving the mall,the director receieved a call again from Indra- jith asking them if they had left. The attack had begun by then.

The crew has been in Nairobi for a few daysnow shooting for Naaku Pente Naaku Taka (ap-parently in Swahili language). They are still inNairobi and will return only after nishing theirshoot.Interestingly, two Malayalam movies have beenshot in Africa recently. One is titled Escape from

Uganda which tells the story of a young girl wrongly held in an Ugandal jail and her daringescape. The shoot of the movie has been com-pleted and it is getting ready for release. Thesecond is the one that is currently being shot inKenya.

National award winning Tamil actor Dhanush'srecent hit Maryaan also was shot extensively in African locations.



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Nairobi attack: A list of victims

who died in Westgate mall Here are details about some of those who were

killed or wounded.

Associated Press, September 24, 2013

The victims of the attack on the upscale Westgate Mall in Kenya's capital werefrom around the world. Here are details

about some of those who were killed or wound-ed.

Australia

Representational image. ReutersRepresentational image. Reuters Architect Ross Langdon worked in Uganda,Rwanda and Tanzania, creating eco-lodges

and socially sustainable tourism in ecologicallysensitive locations. He said at a conference last year that he thought trying to adapt to one'senvironment was a better way to express respectfor the communities in which he was working.

"I thought it might be better to be like a chame-leon — able to adapt and change and blend withour environment rather than conquer it," hesaid.

British media reported he was a dual national,though the Foreign Of ce did not identify Brit-ish victims by name.

___

Britain

British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond saidsix British deaths occurred and the numbercould rise.



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They include Zahira Bawa and her 8-year-olddaughter Jenah, from Leamington Spa in cen-tral England, a relative told Britain's Press Asso-ciation news agency.

___

Canada

Annemarie Desloges, a border services liaisonof cer in Canada's High Commission to Kenya,"was one of our bright young lights, and hers was a career brimming with promise," said TimEdwards, president of the Professional Associa-tion of Foreign Service Of cers.

She was a 29-year-old from a "foreign servicefamily" and had accompanied her parents onoverseas postings before deciding to follow intheir footsteps in 2006.

Vancouver businessman Naguib Damji also diedin the attack, a daughter and niece con rmed to various media.

Two sisters from Toronto, 17-year-old Fardosa Abdi and 16-year-old Dheeman Abdi, were seri-ously injured. Their aunt Hodan Hassan said

from her home in Minnesota that Fardosa wasin critical condition with severe leg injuries.

___

China

A 38-year-old Chinese woman with the surnameZhou who worked in the real estate industry was killed, state media said. Her son was in-

jured in the attack and was in stable conditionin a hospital, according to the Chinese Embassyin Kenya.

___

France

Two French women were killed, President Fran-cois Hollande said. ___

Ghana

Ko Awoonor was a Ghanaian poet, professor

and former ambassador to Brazil, Cuba andthe United Nations. Ghana's ministry of infor-mation said Awoonor's son was injured and isresponding to treatment.

Awoonor's work drew its inspiration from thetraditions of his native Ewe tribe. Ghana's poet-ry foundation said on its website that Awoonor went into exile after Ghana's rst president,Kwame Nkrumah, was driven out in a coup in1966. He studied at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and his dissertation waspublished in 1975. He returned to Ghana and was later jailed for alleged involvement coupplot. His time in prison was recounted in "TheHouse by the Sea (1978)," the foundation said.

___

India

Three Indians were killed in the attack, includ-ing an 8-year-old boy, Paramshu Jain, whosefather is manager of a Nairobi branch of anIndian bank. The child's mother, Mukta Jain, isamong four Indians who were injured.

The others con rmed dead by the Indian Ex-

ternal Affairs Ministry are Sridhar Natarajan,a 40-year-old from India's southern state ofTamil Nadu, and Sudharshan B Nagaraj, of thesouthern city of Bangalore.

___

Kenya

Ruhila Adatia-Sood was a popular radio and TV

personality in Kenya and her husband workedfor the U.S. Agency for International Develop-ment in Nairobi. She was expecting a child.

Mitul Shah was president of the Bidco Unitedfootball team in Kenya, Football Kenya spokes-man John Kaniuki said. Shah worked for theBidco cooking oil company and was reportedlyattending a promotional cooking event withchildren at the mall.President Uhuru Kenyatta's nephew and neph-ew's ancee were also among the dead.

___



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The Netherlands

Elif Yavuz was a senior vaccines researcher forthe Clinton Health Access Initiative, accordingto a statement from the Clinton family. "Elif was brilliant, dedicated, and deeply admired byher colleagues, who will miss her terribly," theClintons said.

She had completed her dissertation researchon malaria in eastern Africa and graduated this year from Harvard University's Department ofGlobal Health and Population, the school said.

Yavuz, 33, was Langdon's partner and was ex-pecting their rst child in early October.

___

New Zealand

Andrew McLaren, 34, a New Zealander whomanaged a factory in Kenya for the avocado oilcompany Olivado, was wounded in the attack,the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairscon rmed. He was hospitalized in stable condi-tion.

____

Peru

Juan Ortiz-Iruri was a retired tropical diseasespecialist for UNICEF who had lived for 25 years in Africa, according to UNICEF and Pe-ruvian Foreign Ministry spokesman AlejandroNeyra.

His son, Ricardo Ortiz, told Radio RPP thatOrtiz-Iruri entered the mall accompanied by hisdaughter, a 13-year-old born in the U.S. She suf-fered a hand injury, but is out of danger.

___

South Africa

One South African citizen was killed, accordingto the country's International Relations Depart-ment.

___

South Korea

South Korea's Foreign Ministry said one SouthKorean woman was among the dead. It provid-ed no further details.

___

Switzerland

One Swiss citizen was injured, but the embassy would not provide further the victim's name.

___

United States

Five American citizens were injured, US of cialssaid.



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Who were the attackers



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Who are al Shabab, the Islamistterror group that attacked

Islamist terror group al Shabab claimed responsibility for a horri c 26/11 style terror attack on

an upscale Nairobi mall on Saturday afternoon. Hereare some key facts about the group.

Ayeshea Perera, September 23, 2013

Islamist terror group al Shabab claimedresponsibility for a horri c 26/11 style ter-ror attack on an upscale Nairobi mall on

Saturday afternoon local time, saying that it wasin retaliation for Kenya's military involvementin Somalia.

The attack has killed at least 43 people andinjured more than 200, according to the latestreports. However this toll is likely to rise fur-ther, especially since a number of gunmen arestill holed up inside the mall with an unspeci ednumber of hostages.

Shortly after the attack, al Shabab claimedresponsibility via its Twitter feed, and said thatit has many times warned Kenya’s governmentthat failure to remove its forces from Somalia“would have severe consequences.”

“The attack at #WestgateMall is just a very tinyfraction of what Muslims in Somalia experienceat the hands of Kenyan invaders,” al-Shababsaid.

Another tweet said: “For long we have waged war against the Kenyans in our land, now it’stime to shift the battleground and take the war

to their land #Westgate.” Al-Shabab’s Twitteraccount was suspended shortly after its claim ofresponsibility and threats against Kenya. Twit-ter’s terms of service forbids making threats.

Here are some key facts about the group:

* al-Shabaab is a Somali offshoot of the al-Qae-da. However as this CNN analysis report notes, Al-Shabaab has long been regarded as a region-

al offshoot of al-Qaeda, its leaders only declaredtheir formal ties to the international terror or-ganization in February 2012. al-Shabaab means'The youth" in Arabic.

* The group is ghting to establish a strictIslamic state in Somalia. The group describesitself as waging jihad against "enemies of Islam"

* Its indiscriminate bombing strategies thatsaw many civilian and Muslim casualties camein for criticism from other branches of the alQaeda including Osama Bin Laden himself. It isnoteworthy that the group reportedly escortedMuslims out of the mall before indiscriminately

ring and throwing grenades inside.

* al-Shabaab was originally engaged in combat with the Somali government and a multina-tional force called AMISOM, the African UnionMission in Somalia, which has been conducting

peacekeeping operations with the backing of theUnited Nations.

Led by Uganda’s army, AMISOM succeeded inforcing al-Shabab to retreat from Mogadishu,



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Somali’s capital, in 2011. Last year, more than2,000 Kenyan troops joined hands with a So-mali clan to evict al-Shabab from its last urbanstronghold, the port town of Kisimayo.

However it evolved its ghting methods - In-stead of force-on-force ghting with AMISOM,it switched to terrorism.“By avoiding directmilitary confrontation”, according to a UNreport, “it has preserved the core of its ghtingforce and resources”.

Read more

* The once ragtag af liate has grown into aneconomic powerhouse, raising tens of mil-lions of dollars in cash from schemes that haveinvolved extortion, illegal taxation and other"fees," according to a 2011 United Nations re-

port.

* According to the US National Counter terror-ism centre, "al-Shabaab is not centralized ormonolithic in its agenda or goals. Its rank-and-

le members come from disparate clans, andthe group is susceptible to clan politics, internaldivisions, and shifting alliances."

* According to this CNN report, "The group is believed to be responsible for attacks in Soma-lia that have killed international aid workers, journalists, civilian leaders and African Unionpeacekeepers. It has struck abroad, too. It wasresponsible for the July 2010 suicide bombingsin Kampala, Uganda, that killed more than 70people, including a U.S. citizen, as they gatheredto watch a World Cup nal soccer match.

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Al Shabab: Who are its Al Qaeda leaders, Western faces, foreign commanders

All you need to know about the Al Shabab, its ideology,

its leaders, recruiters, etc. FP Staff, September 24, 2013

F or more than three whole days, gunmen who stormed Nairobi’s Westgate mallhave continued to hold out against everyeffort by security forces to purge the ve-story building of them. Their persistence has drawnthe world media’s attention to the intense train-ing and planning that appear to have gone intothe attack, bigger and more dramatic than any-thing the Al Shabab has executed until now.

As has been widely reported, the group aligneditself with the Al Qaeda not so long ago, butsome dots are still to be joined linking the

group’s leadership and functioning, and itsthreats of more dramatic violence, to global jihadist networks.

Reports of Westerners among the attackers re-main uncon rmed still, but the Al Shabab is nota stranger to foreign commanders, with somereports indicating that Al Qaeda commanders who left Afghanistan and Pakistan have as-sumed positions of leadership in the Somali

group. Uncorroborated reports suggest that aPakistani national runs the group's security andtraining.

According to this report in the Longwar Jour-

nal, the Al Qaeda commanders come fromKenya, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Sudan and theUnited States.

The report mentions, among others, Pakistanicitizen Abu Musa Mombasa who serves as the Al Shabab's chief of security. (Later reports havenot con rmed this.)

The Longwar Journal report also mentionsother key Al Qaeda men now with the Al Shabab-- Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Kenyan who was appointed by Osama bin Laden as the AlQaeda leader in East Africa; Shaykh Muham-mad Abu Fa'id, a Saudi citizen who serves asa top nancier and manager; Abu Sulayman Al Banadiri, a Somali of Yemeni descent whotrained in Afghanistan.

There is also Abu Mansour al Amriki, whosereal name is Omar Hammami, a US citizen whoconverted to Islam and traveled to Somalia in2006, and was reportedly killed last year. Beforehis death, the American Hammami was a com-mander, recruiter, nancier, and propagandist who appeared in several videos.

Hammami reportedly joined the Al Shabab in2006, appeared as the American face of thegroup and was seen promoting some Islamicrap songs and also viewed as the sheikh of Western jihadi ghters.

A research paper from the International Cen-tre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) , London, also says that the AlShabab, like the Al Qaeda in the Arabian Penin-

sula (AQAP), attracts English-speaking Muslimsand also recruits Western Muslims. Noting thatlarge Somali populations in the United King-dom and United States could be recruitmentpools for the Al Shabab, it cites two key instanc-

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/08/al_qaeda_leaders_pla.php#ixzz2fnnskvV6http://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/al-shababs-western-recruitment-strategyhttp://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/al-shababs-western-recruitment-strategyhttp://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/al-shababs-western-recruitment-strategyhttp://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/al-shababs-western-recruitment-strategyhttp://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/al-shababs-western-recruitment-strategyhttp://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/al-shababs-western-recruitment-strategyhttp://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/08/al_qaeda_leaders_pla.php#ixzz2fnnskvV6http://www.firstpost.com/


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es.

One was the January 2012 arrest of a formerU.S. Army soldier charged with trying to join AlShabab.

The other was in November 2011 when the AlShabab claimed that an American-Somali fromMinnesota, wanted by the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation, took part in an October assaultagainst African Union forces in Mogadishu.

“He was apparently one of two suicide bomb-ers involved in the attack.” He was “at least” thethird American Al Shabab suicide bomber, theresearch paper said.

Notwithstanding some foreign commandersand ghters, the Al Shabab was set up by Soma-lis who continue to control it through a ShuraCouncil. In a series of detailed pro les of the AlShabab’s top leadership, Critical Threats, whichtracks security threats to the United States, saysthe Shura Council has suffered internal divi-sions ever since the group overtly joined the AlQaeda network.

According to the site , the Al Shabab is led by

Ahmed Abdi Godane, aka Mukhtar Abu Zubair, who the group calls ‘emir’. Godane was one ofthe original founders of the group and its topleader since 2008, designated as a SpeciallyDesignated Global Terrorist (SDGT) by the USand with a reward of up to $7 million for infor-mation leading to his location.

Godane, from Hargeisa in Somaliland, stud-ied at a madrassa in Pakistan on a scholarship

funded by wealthy Saudis. He is suspected tohave a home and family in Sharjah.

“In his rst statement on June 2, 2008, as thehead of al Shabaab, Godane pledged allegianceto Osama bin Laden and praised other promi-nent al Qaeda operatives. He also vowed thathis group would launch a direct attack againstthe United States,” says the report. A later videoshows Godane pledging allegiance to Qaedaleader Ayman al Zawahiri

Other leaders of the Al Shabab include SheikhMukhtar Robow, also known as Abu Mansur,about who uncon rmed reports have suggested

that he surrendered to the Somali governmentin July this year. Also a Specially DesignatedGlobal Terrorist (SDGT) to the US, Robow isfrom Baidoa in the Bay region of Somalia andtrained with the Taliban in Afghanistan in2000, returning to Somalia after the Taliban fellfrom power.

“Robow also promotes a degree of transnational jihadist activity,” the report says, adding that heonce told militants in Mogadishu that he wouldsend them to Yemen.

“On March 7, 2011, Robow threatened Kenya with a repeat of the devastating bombings thatrocked Uganda on July 11, 2010,” the reportsays.

Robow is committed to a state governed bySharia law. By various accounts, there appear tohave been rifts between Robow and Godane.

The group’s chief spokesperson is Ali MohamedRage, also known as Ali Dhere. Another seniorleader is Fuad Mohamed Qalaf, also known asShongole, believed to be key to fund-raising forthe Al Shabab.

“Shongole took asylum in Sweden in 1992, butreturned to Somalia in 2004 to ght with theIslamic Courts Union (ICU),” the report says.

A critic of media organizations, he accused edi-tors of Voice of America (VOA) and the BBC oftreason to Islam for misleading Somali Muslimsin 2010.

Read the complete pro les of the leaders here .

http://www.criticalthreats.org/somalia/al-shabaab-leadershiphttp://www.criticalthreats.org/somalia/al-shabaab-leadershiphttp://www.criticalthreats.org/somalia/al-shabaab-leadershiphttp://www.criticalthreats.org/somalia/al-shabaab-leadershiphttp://www.firstpost.com/


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Nairobi mall attack: Who is the ‘white widow’ and is she involved?

Who is the ‘white widow’ and why would she be asuspect in the Nairobi mall attack?


T he 'white widow' has been frequentlynamed in news reports on the Nairobimall attack, amidst reports of UK and UScitizens being among the attackers who stormedthe building.

Although there is no of cial evidence thatthe 'white widow', Samantha Lewthwaite - sonamed because she is the widow of London'sJuly 7 bomber - is actually among the attackers,eyewitness and Kenyan government reports thatthere was a white woman among the terroristshave fueled these claims.

A CNN report quoted State House spokes-man Manoah Esipisu as saying that there werereports of a white woman among the hostagetakers. Kenyan intelligence of cials were inves-tigating the claims, he said. According to thereport:

Esipisu was asked if the reported woman wasthought to be the infamous Al-Shabaab-af l-iated "White Widow," Samantha Lewthwaite."Nothing is being ruled out," he said.

But CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen said it

was unlikely.

"It would be very unusual for a woman to beinvolved in one of these operations," he said."Typically these groups are misogynist. Their view is the woman should be in a home andshrouded in a body veil."

This report by the BBC also mentioned thatLewthwaite had been named, but like CNN, castdoubts on the claim. "Media reports suggest MsLewthwaite, the widow of 7 July bomber Jer-maine Lindsay, was involved in the attack butthe Foreign Of ce says it has no evidence and isunwilling to speculate", the report said.

Kenya's foreign minister Amina Mohamed hasalso been quoted as saying that "two or three Americans" and "one Brit" were among the at-tackers although she did not mention whetherthe 'Brit' suspect was a man or woman.

But who is the 'white widow' and why would she be a suspect?

Here are some quick facts about her:

* A Muslim convert, Samantha Lewthwaite had been dubbed the "white widow" because of hermarriage to Jermaine Lindsay, who blew up anunderground train at King's Cross in London in2005, killing 26 people, says the Belfast Tel-egraph. She had initially denied any knowledgeof the attack and even condemned Lindsay'sactions, but ed the country shortly after.

* The Belfast Telegraph report adds that afterLindsay's death, Lewthwaite married another jihadist while on the run in Africa where she became a leader of the al-Shabaab, which hasclaimed responsibility for the Westgate attack.

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"Lewthwaite later arranged the assassination ofa terror rival in an attack that also claimed thelife of her second husband, Habib Ghani. Shedid not even acknowledge the fact he had beenmurdered," the report adds.

* She has been charged by the Kenyans in herabsence of being part of a terror cell, which al-legedly involved other Britons, that planned at-tacks in the country in 2011, says The Telegraphnewspaper.

* She is the 29-year-old daughter of a soldierand was born in Ireland, says the New YorkTimes, adding that she is now in hiding with herthree children.

* Lewthwaite has even been involved in traininga group of all-female suicide attackers at campsin lawless neighbouring Somalia, says the DailyMail, which carries a detailed pro le of her. TheDaily Mail pro le adds that Lewthwaite is oneof Al Qaeda’s main recruiters in East Africa andis an of cial spokesman for Al Shabaab. "Herfearless reputation within Africa’s growing Is-

lamic terror network has been strengthened byher own involvement as a mujahid – or warrior– during a series of bombings and shootings inKenya’s tourist areas," the pro le adds.

* Aboud Rogo Mohammed and Sheikh Abu- baker Shariff Ahmed, who the US claim are thechief “radicalisers and recruiters” in Mombasafor Somalia’s Islamist army 'al-Shabaab', have been funded through Lewthwaite, sources toldThe Telegraph. But the out t denied any links with her. “That is ridiculous,” Sheikh Abubakertold the daily. “I have never met this Saman-tha, I have never heard of her apart from in thenewspapers."

* Lewthwaite has also been accused of beingthe chief nancier of al Qaeda in East Africa. According to this report in The Telegraph , heralleged links to plot attacks at Eton College andthe Ritz Hotel in London resulted in Westernembassies brie y barring their citizens from visiting Kenya, resulting in very high security athotels and malls.

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After Nairobi attack, Al Shabab couldemerge more vociferous than ever

A report in the Washington Post quotes the Africa

deputy program director of thinktank InternationalCrisis Group, EJ Hogendoorn, as saying the mallattack could lead to increased support from

sympathisers of the Al Shabab.


W ith the siege of Westgate over, in- vestigators concur that this attack

by Al Shabab was not only its mostdramatic ever and, in terms of global impact, beyond the scale of anything the Somali terrorgroup has attempted in the past, but also bearsthe stamp of the Al Qaeda. US security of cialspiecing together evidence from eyewitnessaccounts, interceptions and intelligence havereportedly said the attack was well-planned. Also, the target selected – a mall that’s a symbolof af uence in a growing economy, frequented by foreigners, with a cafe owned by Jews on theground oor, all together guaranteed to provideglobal exposure – and the 26/11 style attackpoint in the direction of the global jihadist network.

Not only that, security agencies across are alsoin agreement that the Al Shabab – a UN reportearlier this year pegged the total strength of thegroup at 5,000 – could emerge more vociferousafter the Nairobi attack.

A report in the Washington Post quotes the Africa deputy program director of thinktankInternational Crisis Group, EJ Hogendoorn, assaying the mall attack could lead to increasedsupport from sympathisers of the Al Shabab.

The newspaper quotes Hogendoorn as saying,“Whether this will arrest the group’s declineremains to be seen. The group has been weak-

ened, and this is an attempt to reverse thattrend.”

In a detailed account of the transnational sup-port for the Al Shabab, a CNN report said the

group could well emerge stronger.

Apart from training and weapons from the AlQaeda in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP), it says,the Al Shabab gets support from the al Hijra,mostly non-Somali east Africans ghting inNairobi and Mombasa and also closely linkedto the only previous major attack by Al Shabab,the Kampala attack of 2010.

“...Al Hijra is far from defeated. According tothe UN report, it has established links with Al-Shabaab af liates elsewhere in East Africaand is enlisting the services of ghters return-ing from Somalia "to conduct new and morecomplex operations." Its leadership has becomecloser to al Qaeda through gures such as Abu- bakar Shariff Ahmed, known as "Makaburi," who is said to favor large-scale attacks in Kenya

in support of Al-Shabaab,” the report says.

Several experts have also suggested that thelong internecine wars within the Al Shabab, in which several commanders were killed includ-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/militants-kenyan-security-forces-locked-in-protracted-battle-at-mall-and-on-twitter/2013/09/24/5912ee72-251a-11e3-ad0d-b7c8d2a594b9_story.htmlhttp://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/22/world/meast/kenya-mall-al-shabaab-analysis/index.htmlhttp://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/22/world/meast/kenya-mall-al-shabaab-analysis/index.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/militants-kenyan-security-forces-locked-in-protracted-battle-at-mall-and-on-twitter/2013/09/24/5912ee72-251a-11e3-ad0d-b7c8d2a594b9_story.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/


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ing an American-born commander who hadcriticised Al Shabab emir Ahmed Abdi Godanealso called Mukhtar Abu Zubair, could be acontributing factor for the attack, a kind of as-sertion by Godane, who was central to the groupcommitting allegiance to the al Qaeda last year.Godane, termed a designated terrorist by theUS, has a reward of $ 7 million on his head.

Then there is also the foreign recruitmentand fundraising that the Al Shabab is alreadyknown for. CNN's national security analystPeter Bergen, also director at the New AmericaFoundation and author of a book on Osama binLaden, writes in CNN: “Of all al Qaeda's af li-ated groups, the Somali terrorist organization Al-Shabaab has over the past several years hadthe deepest links to the United States. Some 15 Americans have died ghting for Al-Shabaab,as many as four of them as suicide bombers inSomalia, and an American citizen even took upa leadership role in the group.”

Bergen says a study by the New America Foun-dation found 22 residents of Minnesota to have

funded or fought with Al Shabab in the pastfour years, leading to crackdowns by the JusticeDepartment and the FBI in a task codenamedOperation Rhino.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the UN spe-cial representative for Somalia, Nicholas Kay,said on Tuesday that African troops battling the Al Shabab in the region need reinforcements,helicopters and armoured vehicles. Accordingto the report , he drew attention to three portsalong the Somali coast that he said were be-ing operated by the Al Shabab for illicit trade,including export of charcoal, to nance them-selves.

“Kay will go to the United Nations in New Yorkthis week to press for more support for themilitary effort by the "under-resourced" Ami-som, the African Union Mission in Somalia,” thereport said, stating that though the country isphysically the size of Afghanistan, the Amisomdoes not have even a single military helicopterfor their campaign.

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Kenya attacks: US under pressure to mount action against al-Shabab

The White House is under pressure to ramp up

counterterrorism action against al-Shabab in Somalia following the al-Qaida-linked group’s deadly attack onan upscale Kenyan shopping mall that has killed and

injured dozens, including Americans

AP, September 23, 2013

W ashington: The White House is underpressure to ramp up counterter-rorism action against al-Shabab in

Somalia following the al-Qaida-linked group'sdeadly attack on an upscale Kenyan shoppingmall that has killed and injured dozens, includ-ing Americans.

Republican lawmakers Sunday said the attackshowed al-Qaida is growing in size and strength, belying the Obama administration's claims thatit has grown weaker.

"They're not on the decline," said Sen. TomCoburn of Oklahoma, the ranking Republicanon the Homeland Security Committee, on CBS'"Face the Nation." ''They're on the rise, as youcan see from Nairobi."

Al-Shabab militants launched their assault onSaturday, storming the mall with grenades andgun re. Kenyan security forces launched a "major" assault late Sunday on the mall, where themilitants are still holding an unknown numberof hostages, trying to end the two-day standoff

that had already killed at least 68 people. TheKenya Defense Forces say their troops haverescued "most" hostages and have taken control

of most of the mall in Nairobi.

State Department spokesman Marie Harf saidve U.S. citizens were among the more than

175 injured, but no Americans are among thosereported killed. Harf said U.S. law enforcement,military and civilian personnel in Nairobi areproviding advice and assistance as requested bythe Kenyan authorities.

U.S. counterterrorism of cials throughout theObama administration have debated whetherto target the Somalia-based rebel group moredirectly, especially after it merged with al-Qaidain early 2012. But U.S. action has been limitedto the occasional drone strike or raid when aparticularly high-value al-Qaida target comesinto view, while relying primarily on assistingSomali and African peacekeeping forces to carryout the day-to-day ght.

That decision was partly driven by the fear thatdirectly targeting al-Shabab would spur thegroup to expand its own target list, striking atU.S. diplomatic posts overseas and calling onmembers of the Somali diaspora inside the U.S.to carry out attacks, according to multiple cur-rent and former U.S. counterterrorism of cials.They all spoke on condition of anonymity be-cause they were not authorized to discuss pub-licly internal policy decisions.

A White House of cial said Sunday that the ad-ministration had taken a "balanced approach.""It's not a question of either direct action orplaying a supporting role," National Security



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Council spokesman Jonathan Lalley said byemail Sunday. "Our approach has been to workto enable and support African partners," as wellas prosecuting some al-Shabab members andsupporters, he said.

"The U.S. military has also taken direct actionin Somalia against members of al-Qaida — someof them members of al-Shabab — engaged inefforts to carry out terrorist attacks against theUnited States and U.S. interests," Lalley said.But that effort in Somalia pales next to, say, thehundreds of U.S. drone strikes against militantsin Yemen and Pakistan during the Obama ad-ministration.

The Somali rebel group has similarly limitedits own target list to Somali of cials or troops,and African Union peacekeeping troops, toavoid drawing the U.S. counterterrorism ma-chine into a full- edged ght, the U.S. of cialssay. Though headed by hard corps Islamistmilitants, al-Shabab's more moderate member-ship has successfully argued to keep the groupfocused on overthrowing the U.S.-based Somaligovernment, rather than taking on the mantleof al-Qaida's larger war with the west.

The group did claim responsibility for twinsuicide bombings in Uganda in 2010 that killedmore than 70 people, but that was seen as a re-action to Uganda providing the bulk of Africanpeacekeeping forces in Somalia.

Similarly, al-Shabab said this weekend's attack was in retribution for Kenyan forces' 2011 pushinto Somalia.

"You reach the population who says the cost we're bearing for this operation in Somaliais too much," said al-Shabab expert DaveedGartenstein-Ross, of the Washington-basedFoundation for Defense of Democracies. "FromShabab's calculus, they may well think it's worthin icting a heavy cost on Kenya," even if itdraws U.S. ire.

But the scale and technical sophistication ofthe Nairobi attack could signal a change in al-Shabab's aspirations, according to RepublicanRep. Peter King, possibly increasing the group'sdirect threat to the United States. King said theState Department had not initially wanted to

declare al-Shabab a terrorist organization be-cause it saw the group focusing on tribal issues within Somalia. It was declared a terror organi-zation in 2008.

"Now, we see, by attacking into Kenya theycertainly have an international dimension tothem," King said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."''We're talking about very signi cant terror-ist groups here which are showing a capacityto attack outside of their borders and actuallyrecruit people from here in the United States,"said King, who serves on the House IntelligenceCommittee.

The attack is a recruiting and fundraising shotin the arm for al-Shabab's leader, Mukhtar AbuZubeyr, who is working to consolidate powerafter a year spent eliminating rivals, accordingto Raffaello Pantucci, who has studied the groupfor West Point's Combating Terrorism Center.

"It's a trifecta for the group," Pantucci said in aninterview Sunday. "It brings attention, causeschaos and is successful."

Leaving the violence unanswered could be afurther boon for the organization.

Up until now, President Barack Obama secretlyhas authorized only two commando raids andat least two drone strikes against the al-Qaidalinked terrorists in Somalia, while a small U.S.special operations team has advised Africanpeacekeeping troops, as well as helping builda small elite Somali counterterrorism force,according to two former U.S. military of cialsfamiliar with the operations.

Two former U.S. counterterrorism of cials saythe preference has always been to meet speci cincidents with a speci c response but to avoidgetting too deeply involved in the continent of Africa.

"The 'don't expand the ght' argument has always won," one said.

They said the number of western citizens amongthe dead and injured in the weekend incidentmay change the U.S. calculation.



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What India can learn



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Is this Nairobi’s 26/11? Strikingparallels with Mumbai attack

Three-day siege, ill-prepared security forces, targetting

af uent locations where foreigners gather, Jewish installations, Kalashnikovs -- the similaritieswith Mumbai’s terror attack of 2008 are plentiful


Asiege lasting three days, terror-struckcitizens cowering in darkened stairwells,making calls to friends and family fromground zero of the attack, attempting to escapethrough windows, helicopters circling the siteof the attack, teams of armed forces’ personneland media personnel in readiness outside – foranybody who has lived through Mumbai’s 26/11terror attack of 2008, the Nairobi siege has to be an eerie reminder.

Besides the obvious similiarities, there are afew more – apart from the fact that the Mumbaiperpetrators and the Al Shabab terrorists bothhave Al Qaeda links, the attackers in both caseshad a safe haven in a neighbouring country.

A report in The Guardian on the chilling simi-larities suggests that the November 26 terror at-tack on key South Mumbai locations could haveinspired the Al Shabab attack on the Westgatemall.

"Nairobi's gunmen were clearly inspired by theMumbai terror attacks in 2008, which analysts

said at the time could be the template for ter-rorism of the future. Easier and cheaper than bombs, requiring just a handful of machineguns, plenty of ammo and a few men (and, inNairobi, at least one woman) willing to die fortheir cause. And without going on full, perma-nent lockdown, what can cities do to preventsuch an attack?" the report says.

While 10 terrorists of the LeT held separateproperties in South Mumbai in a siege-like situ-ation for about 60 hours in 2008, Kenyan secu-rity forces called the battle at Westgate almostcomplete on the third day of the siege.

“Like the Mumbai attacks, the Nairobi gunmenarmed with AK 47s stormed a crowded publicspace spraying gun re, tossing grenades, kill-ing and wounding dozens and taking hostages before holing themselves up,” says an NDTVreport, adding that the attackers in either casecame from across the border.

One of the cafes on the ground oor of the Westgate mall was reportedly owned by Jewsand the mall frequented by foreigners. TheMumbai attackers picked the Chabad Housetoo, an orthodox Israeli religious center, inColaba while also attacking Café Leopold, an-other hub for foreign tourists. The Al Qaeda hasstated clearly that its attacks will be on af uenthubs where Westerners gather. The Westgatemall was a place frequented by expats workingin Kenya.

Also, in either case, the terrorists appearedprepared for a two or three-day siege, thenight-long sporadic gun re taking ill-preparedsecurity forces by surprise. While the Mumbiaattackers were in touch with their handlers in

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Pakistan over satellite phones, the latter watch-ing television news updates of the siege, theNairobi gunmen and their handlers used so-cial media to work up fear and announce theirintentions.

Here is what a report in Slate says:

Meanwhile, the BBC’s Frank Gardner says the Westgate attack is similar to the Mumbai siegeof 2008, when numerous low-pro le targets were attacked with the goal of killing as manycivilians as possible. “That prompted a completerethink in counter-terrorism in Britain, with

the realization that the UK was unprepared atthe time for such a determined attack,” writesGardner.

Increasingly, observers believe that terroristsare commonly using modus operandi rst triedout in India. A report in the Times of India points to the use of box cutters to hijack aircraft(common to both Kandahar and 9/11) and serial blasts in trains (Mumbai and London) apartfrom the Taj Mahal hotel-style siege at West-gate.

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Nairobi terror attack:Lessons India should learn

With the United States no longer willing to lead thewar on terror single-handed, it’s imperative for India

to play a greater role in global counter-terrorismefforts, committing wealth—and yes, lives—to defend

its citizens far from its frontiers.

Praveen Swami, September 22, 2013

“History,” wrote Osama bin Laden's men-tor, Abdullah Azzam, “does not write itslines except with blood”. “Glory does not

build its lofty edi ce except with skulls; honourand respect cannot be established except on afoundation of cripples and corpses. Empires,distinguished peoples, states and societies can-not be established except with examples. Indeedthose who think that they can change reality, orchange societies, without blood, sacri ces andinvalids, without pure, innocent souls, then theydo not understand the essence of this Din.”

In Nairobi this grim weekend, the world hasagain seen men dance to Azzam’s song of blood:39 people are dead, and more than 150 injured,at the time of writing; more will die as the day winds by.

The big story isn't—or shouldn't—be about the victims mown down as the attackers, in the words of one witness, threw grenades “likemaize to chickens”. It shouldn't be about the

Indian man shot dead at point-blank range because he did not know the name Amina, theprophet Muhammad’s mother.

It should be about this one stark truth: a decadeafter 9/11, global the jihadist movement is morepowerful than at any time in the past—and the world has no clue just how to stamp it out.

The Nairobi attacks should be bringing homeone lesson to New Delhi policy makers: in aglobalised word, Indian nationals and interests

are at threat far from the country’s frontiers. InKenya alone, there are more than 11,000 In-dian citizens. With the United States no longer willing to lead the war on terror single-handed,it’s imperative for India to play a greater rolein global counter-terrorism efforts, committing wealth—and yes, lives—to defend its citizens.

FROM a sprawling maze of buildings at CampLemmonier, next to the airport in the former

French colonial outpost of Djibouti, the UnitedStates has been ghting a grim battle againstSomalia’s al-Shabab. Eight Predator drones,eight F-18E bombers, transport jets and some300 special forces personnel have been operat-ing against jihadist targets. The base in reportedto be in the midst of an $1.4billion expansion, which could let it house another 800 comman-dos.

The United States’ secret war in Somali is less well-known than its campaigns in Afghanistanor Yemen—but it’s outcome isn’t too different,posing hard questions about global counter-terrorism efforts.



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Ever since 2007, a multinational force called AMISOM, the African Union Mission in Soma-lia, has been conducting peacekeeping opera-tions with the backing of the United Nations.Led by Uganda’s army, AMISOM succeeded inforcing al-Shabab to retreat from Mogadishu,Somali’s capital, in 2011. Last year, more than2,000 Kenyan troops joined hands with a So-mali clan to evict al-Shabab from its last urbanstronghold, the port town of Kisimayo.

Following the election of Hassan Sheikh Moha-mud as the country’s rst proper head of statein 21 years, many experts saw signs of hope.“Many angry and disaffected Somalis passivelysupported al-Shabab”, the preeminent scholarof Somalia, Ken Menkhaus wrote, in part be-cause the alternative was so uninspiring. Nowthat support could evaporate as Somalis rally behind the new government”.

The evidence that al-Shabab was in retreatseemed persuasive. The organisation becameriven through by internal ssures. Followinga split last June between key leaders SheikhHassan DahirAweysand Ahmed AbdiGodane,frontal ghting broke out. Fighters linkedto Godane, who is thought to be resisting al-

Qaeda’s growing in uence, killed their hardlinerivals Ibrahim Haji Jama Meadand Abdi HamidHashiOlhayi. United States-born Omar Ham-mami, and Osama al-Britani, a British citizen ofPakistani origin, died in similar factional ght-ing outside Mogadishu.

“Somalia is a good news story for the region, forthe international community, but most especial-ly for the people of Somalia itself”, United States

assistant secretary of state Johnny Carson told journalists late last year.

Not just yet, this weekend’s carnage makesclear.

WHY isn’t al-Shabab in retreat, as some hadexpected? For one, the organisation’s tacticsevolved. Instead of force-on-force ghting with AMISOM, it switched to terrorism. In June,2009, it staged a suicide bombing targeting theMedina hotel in Beledweyne, following up inDecember with another strike on a universitygraduation ceremony in Mogadishu. Then, inJuly, 2010, it staged its rst known transnation-

al strike, killing 74 people watching the football World Cup in Uganda’s capital, Kampala. Lastsummer, 15 people were killed when terroristshit a church in Kenya.

“The military strength of al-Shabaab, with anapproximately 5,000-strong force, remains ar-guably intact in terms of operational readiness,chain of command, discipline and communica-tions ability”, the United Nations’ MonitoringGroup for Somalia and Eritrea reported last year.

“By avoiding direct military confrontation”, theUN succinctly concluded,“it has preserved thecore of its ghting force and resources”.

Even though al-Shabab is riven through byinternal ssures, it’s still succeeded in thrivingin a landscape characterised by state collapse,a polity fractured on clan lines, and endemiccorruption and warlord-ism. The country hashad no functioning government for decades, theconsequence of multiple coups, endemic crimi-nality and the disintegration of government.

For the global jihadist movement, these failedstates are an ideal area in which to expand their

in uence—to develop pro-states and safe ha- vens, of the kind al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Za- wahiri recently highlighted the need for.

The problem is that while the United States is willing to conduct counter-terrorism operationsin Somalia—targeting jihadi leaders, and retali-ating against plots, for example—no-one has theresources for long wars of the kind that is wind-ing down in Afghanistan. It certainly no longer

had the stomach to attempt nation-building ofthe kinds it failed to do after 9/11.

In recent true, the United States has repeatedlyproclaimed al-Qaeda is dying. “Al-Qaeda is sortof on the ropes and taking a lot of shots to the body and the head”, White House counter-ter-rorism chief John Brennan said.Former defencesecretary Leon Panetta concurred, arguing thatthe United States is “within reach” of “strategi-cally defeating" the jihadi group.

That’s true:but then, narrowly de ned, al-Qaeda was never a huge military threat. At it’s peak,the organisation had a core of just under 200



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cadre—120-odd grouped together in a crackunit, and a small number of foot-soldiers han-dling logistical work and training. Perhaps athousand men had graduated from the trainingcamps it ran in Afghanistan. Their remnants areunder constant pressure.

Yet, there’s also this: a decade after 9/11, the wider jihadist movement is more powerful thanat any time in the past, exercising in uencefrom Mali to Libya and on to Syria and Iraq. In-side Pakistan, the Tehreek-e-Taliban has all butdefeated the state; in Afghanistan, the outcomeof the contestation unleashed after 9/11 is farfrom clear.. Bin Laden himself, the scholar C.

Christine Fair has noted, has emerged as a “kindof Che Guevara of the jihadist movement”: anicon important not for the operational role heplayed, but an inspirational gure.

In the decade since 9/11, the dates have multi-plied: 13/12, 7/7, 26/11. There will be more—and India hasn't done enough to prepare for thenext strike on its own soil, let along in distantcountries. Yet, this problem cannot be fought by individual nations in their own territories.India need to start thinking about a strategic,global response—just as its enemies are doingright now.



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Nairobi mall attack: How can weprevent such attacks in India?

A proper prevention strategy, intelligence collectionand capabilities for a professional response can

prevent several such incidents.

Ajit Joy, September 23, 2013

T he attack by a small group of well armedterrorists at a shopping mall in NairobiKenya goes on for the second day withthe death toll rising to 68.

Security forces, even after 48 hours from thestart of the incident, are trying to get to the ter-rorists and the hostages they hold. This incidentis so similar to the Mumbai terrorist attack of26 November 2008. Who can forget the day when the city and the country was brought toits knees in helplessness for over 72 hours by just 10 well trained terrorists even as the me-dia beamed desperate images in real time. Letus not forget that 164 lives were lost and abouttwice that injured in Mumbai.

Terrorist strategies change fast and one doesnot know in what form or from where the nextattack is going to take place. However, given the wide publicity and effect that this kind of at-

tack in a prominent urban place by a motivatedgroup prepared to give up their own lives hasachieved, this model is likely to be used moreoften by terror groups. From what happened inMumbai we learnt very painful lessons - that we

need to be prepared to prevent such attacks andif we fail in prevention - to face it profession-ally.

After ve years of Mumbai, and in light of theNairobi attack, we need to review our prepared-ness. How ready are cities like Chennai, Kochi,Guwahati or Ahmedabad to deal with suchemergencies. More importantly, how well are we faring as a nation in preventing such inci-dents from occurring?

Nairobi-rescue-ReutersWell trained, quick reac-tion security units that can deal with emergencysituations ought to be present in major citiesready to reach the spot very quickly. These unitsshould be able to reach other locations at shortnotice. Local police must have the ability to actintelligently as the rst responders. The build-ing plan of the most prominent locations must be with the police and special units. We do haveall these in place, but this is useful once we havefailed in preventing incidents.

However, more than being prepared to facesuch situations it is important to prevent andpre-empt them. This is possible only with a con-scious and educated response by the state andpeople combined. At every point of vulnerabilitystate authorities need to do their job well, beit an immigration point, border post, the coastguard, customs or police. Lack of professional-ism, training and many times owing to corrup-tion, operatives from terror networks are able tocross borders and smuggle in arms and explo-

sives with ease.

Certain locations within countries where it ispossible for terrorists to get local support needto be especially monitored. Most of such terror-



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ist incidents take place after careful planningand reconnaissance of the target to be attacked.Houses and hotel rooms are hired, vehiclespurchased, telephones and sim cards are locallyprocured. Thus a lot of local contact and prepa-ration goes into an operation which shouldarouse the suspicion of citizens.

For this security consciousness needs to beraised amongst the public. Suspicious peopleand objects need to be reported. However, this will not happen if the police itself is a corruptand inef cient organisation - the public doesnot trust. While improving professionalism ofthe police, more people oriented policing andcommunity relationships is required especiallyin sensitive locations.

Along with increasing security and prepared-ness one cannot understate the importance ofintelligence collection and surveillance. Recentcontroversy around the Snowden revelationsshows how deeply entrenched and widespreadelectronic surveillance by some countries have become.

India is quite well advanced in its own electron-ic surveillance of all kinds of communication. While there needs to be a line between what thestate is allowed to see and hear and individualfreedoms and privacy, when faced with savinginnocent lives security of a nation will have totrump privacy rights. In addition modern daysecurity is also about sharing intelligence withother nations. Our preparedness must alsoinclude strong allies in the global intelligencenetwork.

While incidents such as the one in Nairobi, orMumbai may still recur, a proper preventionstrategy, intelligence collection and capabilitiesfor a professional response can prevent severalsuch incidents and help in decisive response if ittakes place.

Ajit Joy has worked in the Indian Police Serviceand the United Nations Of ce on Drugs andCrime



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Lessons from Nairobi: Why India is not ready for the next 26/11

Nairobi ought to be a wake up call--but there’s no

reason to believe it’s going to wake up a governmentwith a demonstrated ability to ignore re-alarms going off by its head.

Praveen Swami, September 25, 2013

S chool Number 1 opens its doors on BellDay, the traditional beginning of Rus-sia's school year, but only so parents can walk past the peeling walls, scarred by the graf-

ti generations of students in icted on them,through the long corridor lined with the photo-graphs of the children who were killed.

There's no date called 9/1 imprinted on the world's memory, but perhaps there should be.That morning of 1 September, 2004, heavilyarmed men from jihadist group Riyad ul-Sal-iheen–the Gardens of the Righteous–walkedin through the door of Beslan's school soonafter the students and their parents did, andtook 1,100 hostages. At the end of a murderousthree-day siege, 334 people were dead, 186 ofthem children--some executed at point-blankrange.

It isn't possible to look into the minds of themen who carried out the world's most lethal -dayeen terrorist attack, but if we could, perhaps we'd have found words like these: "The light ofthe sun and water”, the jihadist cleric Muham-

mad Masood Azhar wrote,“are essential forcrops otherwise they go waste. In the same way,the life of nations depends on martyrs. The na-tional elds can be irrigated only with the bloodof the best hearts”.

Or, perhaps, we'd have found this, from a book written the Islamist tyrant General MuhammadZia-ul-Haq's key ideologue Brigadier SK Malik:"terror struck into the hearts of the enemies isnot only a means, it is the end in itself".

Ever since the still-unfolding horror of the Westgate mall attack in Nairobi, Indians have

been remembering 26/11--and asking if it couldhappen again. Beslan's story holds out this im-portant lesson: 26/11 wasn't the beginning of anew kind of terror, and Nairobi won't be the last we see of it.

Like bombs, dayeen assault teams kill, but thecarnage they in ict unfolds over time and ingraphic detail—making the loss of skilled andcommitted cadre worth bearing for their com-manders. For terrorists, killing is a macabreform of performance theatre, that brings boththeir cause and their willingness to kill for ithome to their audience—us.

Hit by past dayeen attacks executed by theLashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, andfacing new threats from the Indian Mujahideen,the question before India's security forces is when, not if.

From 26/11, India learned just how badly pre-pared it was.Mumbai's police control system collapsed inthe face of a deluge of panicked, inaccurate



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information. Key of cers failed to administerits emergency-response system, and ill-trainedmen on the ground proved ineffectual. Even theélite National Security Guard turned out to lackequipment like ballistic shields, hydraulic door-openers, and hands-free wireless communica-tion equipment. Faced with innovative terroristtactics, like the use of plain, old-fashioned reto create a distance between them and police,commanders ailed.

In the year since then, police forces have madesubstantial investments in addressing thoseproblems. Maharashtra's Force1, after a poor beginning, is now rated among the best in thecountry, ranking alongside the National Se-curity Guard and crack military units in com-petitive commando exercises. Hyderabad hasthe 250-strong OCTOPUS force, drawing onthe experience of the state's feared counter-Maoist Greyhounds. Delhi set up a similarspecial weapons and tactics units in 2009,initially trained by military experts from Indiaand abroad. The National Security Guard hasre-equipped, retrained and set up new cen-tres— though there's some criticism its massiveexpansion has engendered a hierarchical, bu-reaucratic culture that will make it ineffectual in

combat.

The bad news is this: it's not enough.

For one, there's no police magic-bullet to stop well-equipped attackers willing to kill civiliansin crowded public places. Mumbai counter-ter-rorism drills have shown that while Force1 can be deployed in 20 minutes or less, it can take upto an hour and half for them to reach locations

in the city's southern and north-western com-mercial hubs.

Elsewhere in the world, police long ago realisedthat crack SWAT teams can only be part of thesolution. In 1999, teenagers Eric Harris andDylan Klebold walked into their high school building, and opened re at students inside.The Columbine school shootings sparked off amajor rethinking on the best ways to deal withsuch attacks. Local police had, until Columbine, been taught to cordon-off and contain shootingattacks until SWAT units arrived. SWAT teams were in place outside the school within 40 min-utes of the shooting being reported to police,

but it proved too late.

From soon after the shootings, police tactics began to change. Instead of containing shootersand calling for specialist help, rst responders were taught to immediately engage the attack-ers.

ReutersReutersExperience has shown this doesn't always work well. Earlier this month, former soldier Alexis Aaron opened re at the Navy Yard in Wash-ington, D.C. Police responded rapidly, engag-ing Aaron in a gunbattle within minutes of thekilling having begun-but 13 people were alreadydead. In the 2012 shootings in Aurora, police were at the site within 90 seconds of a crazedgunman opening re--but even that was toolate.

Yet, the fact that rst responders arrived rap-idly probably helped prevent far higher levels offatalities.

It's often forgotten how much ill-trained andunequipped police rst-responders actuallyachieved on 26/11. From the interrogation of

Muhammad Ajmal Kasab, it's clear that railwaypolice guards who returned re using aging bolt-action ri es led his two-man assault teamto drop its plans to take hostages, and insteadhead out to the Cama Hospital--leading to hiseventual capture. Policemen holed up in theluxury apartments behind the National Centrefor the Performing Arts pinned down the ter-rorists at the Oberoi and Trident Hotels. Andinside the Taj itself, police put up a ght which,

though relatively ineffectual, probably savedmore than a few lives. This was done by of cersand men who had never seen hostile re in theirlives.

"The government should be focusing on upgrad-ing the skills of rst-responders", argues AjaiSahni, the director of the Institute for Con ictManagement in New Delhi. "We just don't havea national template for improving basic policetraining, and that's a fatal aw".

It isn't, of course, the only fatal aw. Firstposthas earlier reported massive de cits in the In-telligence Bureau's staf ng and training, which



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constrains its capacity to pre-empt terror at-tacks. Police human resource shortages haven't been plugged, despite promises made by thegovernment in 2008.

Hotels and malls have posted guards, but fewhave worthwhile training or equipment. In allmajor cities, cars entering public spaces arechecked for explosives using a metal detector, ora cursory glance, both pointless exercises. Justdays after the recent bombing of the Bodh Gaya

temple, Firstpost's sister television network,CNN-IBN, succeeded in in ltrating mock pres-sure cooker bombs past security at threatenedplaces of worship.

Nairobi ought to be a wake up call--but there'sno reason to believe it's going to wake up a gov-ernment with a demonstrated ability to ignore

re-alarms going off by its head.



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The impact on Nairobi and Kenya



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Westgate massacre: Remembering a happy Nairobi

I have been in a trance, for the last three days, tooshocked at what is happening in Nairobi. Nairobi, thecapital city of Kenya that was our home till we left it

3 weeks ago, is under siege. It feels as if our backyardhas been bombed.

Mintu Mohan, September 24, 2013

Ihave been in a trance, for the last threedays, too shocked at what is happening inNairobi. Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya

that was our home till we left it 3 weeks ago, isunder siege. It feels as if our backyard has been bombed.

Westgate mall was the only glitzy mall in thecity of Nairobi, at least in the area with maxi-mum concentration of expats and Kenyans ofIndian origin. This is where all the action isnow. Even though I claim to hate malls and de-test everything they stand for, I guess we all getdrawn to this arti cial cocoon like ies to light,so much so that even we the “wannabe social-ists” end up there more often than we like.

We lived 10 minutes away from Westgate, so

close that I have sneaked out to catch movies with my husband during his lunch breaks fromthe of ce. We were regulars on Tuesdays to the“Pizza Inn” to enjoy the “2 for the price of 1”offer and afterwards to have yogurt ice cream at

“Planet Yogurt”.

“Nakumatt”, the only big supermarket chainin East Africa, owned by a Kenyan Indian, wasour one stop shopping destination in spite ofthe high prices. Indians dominated Westlands, where Westgate mall is located and the nearbyParklands area. At any time, a good percent-age of shoppers in Westgate would be in sarior salwar kameez or the traditional dress of theBohra community. These are Indians who havelived in Kenya for generations and have made ittheir home but have held on to the traditions oftheir ancestors. A lot of businesses in the areaare also owned by these Indians.

When we moved to Nairobi in August 2012,our Africa dreams had nally materialised. Thedream that we both had nurtured for many years by watching the twinkle in the eyes offriends who had lived in Africa and reading Wilbur Smith, was just coming true.

From the moment we landed in Kenya the warnings and advice started pouring in - don'tgo here, don't go there, don't drive at night,don't walk on the streets, always keep windowsrolled up in the car and so on. Incessant warn-ings, security brie ngs, daily emails and textmessages on security situation and horror sto-ries from people who have been there for years were part of the daily routine. But none of this

deterred us from getting out and exploring thiscountry that is blessed in abundance with natu-ral beauty. Along the way, I also came to loveKenyans who are among the most polite, heartyand jovial people I have come across.



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Kenyans love to talk. If I paused long enough with the fruit and vegetable sellers at themarket,theywould start to chat me up, enquir-ing about family, where I am from, how manykids I have and whether I plan to "add " more.I particularly enjoyed the Kenyan English used by local people where they often added dif cult words into everyday language. On asking for di-rections to a guard once I got " Madam, proceedstraight, negotiate the curve to the right..."

Our 365 days in Nairobi, which I think weutilised to the fullest by visiting each and everysafari park and any place of interest, was notmarred by a single bad experience even though burglaries and car jacking abounded. The onlyinstance when we were in a “situation” was when our car got bogged in Lake Nakuru. The

rst van that came along stopped and the driverhelped us call for help and he waited till our vehicle was pulled out and we were on our way,even though it was getting late and he had cli-ents with him.

Sitting here thinking back on the time spent in Westgate, I am surprised that I remember somany faces. I wonder if these faces I know aresafe. We had gone to enjoy the succulent burg-

ers at “Urban”, the newly opened burgerplaceand I remember being served on both our visits by this thin tall girl with a wide smile. “Urban” was the rst shop at the main entrance and peo-ple sat on the verandah enjoying the open air were apparently the rst to be hit by bullets!

In our last weeks in the city, I was in “Naku-matt” almost every other day to deal with someissue with our VAT refund so much so that I

still can see the face of the customer service of-cer who helped me sort it out; the kind lady at

the counter of Kazuri bead shop who patientlylet me browse through each and every piece inher shop over a few weeks till I mustered thecourage to pick up one of their exorbitantlypriced necklaces; and the Indian lady in Sal- war Kameez, who would sell 250 Ksh (Rs 175)scoops of sinful delight from her gelato counteron the ground oor. There were several suchsmall counters scattered all over the mall sell-ing Kenyan and Ethiopian handicrafts or mobileaccessories. I shudder to think that those sellersmight have been in the direct line of re.

I did hear back from a lot of my friends say-ing they are safe, but in a year one meets a lotof people and Nairobi is a small town and theexpat community, really tiny. Every moment Iam getting ashes of faces I have met and I praythat they survived. Each friend who wrote to mehad a tale of miracle, where one family didn't gofor their routin

Documents

FirstpostEbook Nairobi 20130927110058