Alpha Group also conducts what are known as “snatch and grab” operations — targeting terrorism suspects and interrogating them within the confines of the airport compound.
The most visible security presence in Mogadishu, however, continues to be the African Union peacekeeping mission, comprised of soldiers from Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Kenya and Ethiopia. They roam Mogadishu’s recently paved streets in massive Casspirs, South African-made vehicles built to withstand the blasts of improvised explosive devices.
Al Qaeda’s East African group, Al Shabab, may have been pushed from the capital in the summer of 2011, but it remains a threat both within Somalia and beyond its borders. On Friday, one of the group’s leaders threatened to attack Kenya in retribution for their forces in Somalia, saying, “If they kill a Somali girl, we will kill a Kenyan girl.”
Al Shabab claimed responsibility for September’s devastating Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi that killed more than 65.