Shabaab hold demos to show Al Qaeda support, KDF
Kenya's Defence Forces (KDF) say that Somalia's extremist Al-Shabaab fighters held demonstrations in areas under their control to display that their new-found alliance with Al-Qaeda enjoys local support.
KDF spokesperson Major Emmanuel Chirchir, who made the announcement on his twitter handle @MajorEChirchir on Monday, however gave no indications on whether Kenyan forces planned to utilise the suggested public display by Al-Shabaab to attack the group's members.
" Al shabaab planning demonstrations within areas of control aimed to indicate al shabaab-al Qaida merger has local support," said Major Chirchir.
A second tweet stated " Kismayu demonstration already on, agenda Al Qaida-AlShabaab merger and Somali London conference. Forced demonstration!!"
Al-Shabaab controls mostly central and southern regions of Somalia where the suggested demonstrations are likely to be held.
Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri had announced the union between the two terror groups in a video message posted on jihadist forums last Thursday. (READ: Al-Shabaab says has joined forces with Al-Qaeda)
"I will break the good news to our Islamic nation, which will... annoy the crusaders, and it is that the Shabaab movement in Somalia has joined Al-Qaeda," Zawahiri said in the video.
"The jihadist movement is with the grace of Allah, growing and spreading within its Muslim nation despite facing the fiercest crusade campaign in history by the West," said Zawahiri in the video released by Al-Qaeda's media arm As-Sahab.
Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, in response to the announcement, said Al-Qaeda should be listed as a colonial power in Somalia.
Al-Shabaab insurgents, fighting to overthrow a fragile Western-backed transitional government in the war-torn Horn of Africa country, proclaimed their allegiance to bin Laden in a video documentary distributed in 2009.
