Database: Identifiers of Designated Islamic Terrorist Organizations

Al-Shabaab

Designated as terrorist by: Australia, Canada, European Union, United Kingdom, United Nations, United States

Base of operations: Somalia

Background: National Counterterrorism Center
Background: Council on Foreign Relations

Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahideen ("Mujahideen Youth Movement"), better known simply as al-Shabaab ("the Youth"), is a terrorist group determined to depose the Western-backed government of Somalia and establish fundamentalist Islamic rule there. Its union with al-Qaeda was proclaimed in 2012. Al-Shabaab murders Christians and controls much of southern and central Somalia, but its brutality is not limited to that nation. For example, it carried out suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, in 2010 and is widely believed to have been behind the 2013 massacre at a mall in Nairobi, Kenya. Somali-Americans, particularly from the Minneapolis area, have been recruited to fight alongside al-Shabaab, with one becoming the first known suicide bomber from the U.S. Washington's worry is that well-trained Somali-American jihadists will return and constitute a grave terror threat to the homeland.

Al-Shabaab Emblem	Al-Shabaab Female Supporters	Al-Shabaab Fighters	Al-Shabaab Flag
Al-Shabaab Graphics	Al-Shabaab: Kata'ib Media	Black Flag of Jihad (Sacred Seal Version)	Land of Islam- Sacred Seal Version