Caleb Weiss

Somalian authorities have announced the death of Abdullahi Osman, better known as Engineer Ismail, one of Shabaab’s most senior leaders. Osman was believed to be responsible for overseeing the group’s explosive engineering and its vast media apparatus. Shabaab has yet to comment on his alleged death.

Shabaab, Al Qaeda’s branch in East Africa, highlighted last year’s brazen assault on Mogadishu’s Godka Jilacow prison, operated by Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency. In the video, one of the attackers was identified as the son of Ali Mohamed Rage, the group’s top spokesman.

A photo released online by the Islamic State’s Central Africa Province shows its fighters raiding and looting living quarters during an attack on a Chinese mine in Muchacha, Congo.

Al Qaeda’s Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) and its allies in the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) conducted a massive, widespread offensive in Mali, from Bamako to Kidal, on Saturday. Several cities fell under the complete or partial control of the militant alliance, while others, including Mali’s capital, remain under intense pressure.

Across Mali, jihadis are seizing territory, encircling the capital, and pushing a fragile regime toward collapse. Backed by a sprawling network and in an effort years in the making, Al Qaeda’s Sahel affiliate has launched its most ambitious offensive yet—one that could redraw the map of West Africa. Bill Roggio and Caleb Weiss unpack what’s going on.

During his message for Eid al Adha, Ali Mohamad Rage, Shabaab’s top spokesman, congratulated the Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), Al Qaeda’s branch in West Africa, for its recent victories in Mali. Rage also praised Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and denounced American and Turkish activities in Somalia.

Over the course of President Donald Trump’s second term in office, the United States has greatly increased its military strikes inside Somalia. Throughout the previous administration of President Joe Biden, the US launched only 48 strikes inside the country. In the first two years of Trump’s second term, this number has so far risen to at least 207 strikes.

Somalia said that it and “international partners” killed Maalin Jinow Ibrahim, a reported co-founder of Shabaab and a member of its central shura council, in a targeted operation earlier this month. However, Al Qaeda’s branch for East Africa has yet to confirm his death.

In 2002, Jamal Kiyemba, a Ugandan national living in the United Kingdom, was arrested in northwest Pakistan after allegedly attempting to join Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and was sent to the US prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Released in 2006 and sent to Uganda, Kiyemba has since been in and out of prison, most recently over his support of the Islamic State’s Central Africa Province (ISCAP).

Abu Hudhayfah al Ansari, who has been the official Islamic State spokesman for three years, was reported killed in a joint Saudi-Yemeni special forces raid in Hadhramaut Governorate. The Islamic State has yet to comment on Ansari's status.