Somalia based terror group Al Shabaab has no reason to retaliate on behalf of Iran.
Harun Maruf, the author of Inside Al-Shabaab and VOA News journalist says Al Shabaab will lose any sleep over the death of Qassem Soleimani.
“If anything they will be quietly pleased with his demise given his role against Sunni jihadists in Syria,” Maruf said in a Twitter thread on Sunday.
He further says Al Shabaab doesn’t have relations with Iran, but is aware that Al-Qaeda members used Iran as a transit.
“Iran tried to establish good relations in Somalia following the 2011 famine, donating millions of dollars worth of humanitarian aid. Al-Shabaab didn’t threaten Iranian interests in Mogadishu at the time. In January 2016, Somalia cut ties with Iran after pressure from Saudi Arabia,” Maruf said.
A former Al-Shabaab defector believes some of the weapons Iran sends to Yemen end up in Somalia. Al-Shabaab likely bought weapons including shoulder missiles from smugglers who bring it from Yemen. While these weapons may have originated Iran, there is no proof of direct supplies.
Security analyst Adan Cabdull adds that claims of Shabab and Iran nexus are ridiculous.
He said the routine Iranian flights into ASWJ (Ahlu Suna Waljamaaca) held towns shows Iran has in recent years bolstered its contacts with Somali Sufi groups with some taken to Shia holy sites in Iraq/Iran.
ASWJ is a Somalia-based paramilitary group consisting of moderate Sufis opposed to radical Islamist groups such as Al-Shabaab.
A US military service member and two US contractors were on Sunday killed in a dawn attack on a military base used by the US and Kenyan military.
Two other Department of Defense personnel were wounded in Sunday’s attack on the Manda Bay Airfield in Lamu county, according to Al Jazeera.
