Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Al-Shabaab's elite Amniyat branch may be the last force keeping the
militant group's leader Ahmed Abdi Godane in power as the organisation
continues to suffer territorial losses and rival commanders press on in
their dissent against his rule, observers say.
Amniyat members are highly trained and specialised operatives whose
roles vary from gathering intelligence to carrying out assassinations
and bombing missions.
Al-Shabaab's command structure is divided into three sections:
Jabhad, the military branch; Hizb, the police equivalent; and Amniyat,
the intelligence division, according to Radio Mogadishu Director and
former Islamic Courts Union spokesman Abdirahim Isse Addow.
Recruits are initially trained in camps, after which instructors
place them in one of the branches, he said. Amniyat also recruits
operatives from other branches within al-Shabaab.
"A person who is creative, brave, loyal to the emir [Godane] and the
group's ideology, and capable of keeping secrets is selected to be a
member of Amniyat," Addow told Sabahi. "They are then given specialised
training and separated into different units such as the bomb and
landmine squad, explosives unit, the assassination unit, and the
intelligence unit."
However, the Amniyat branch has been weakened by information
extracted from defectors and captured fighters, Addow said. For example,
security officials in Puntland wounded and captured an alleged Amniyat
commander in June.
Since most of its operations now focus on ending internal threats
against Godane's rule, if Amniyat is eliminated and defeated, that could
lead to al-Shabaab's demise, he said.
"The Jabhad troops have been defeated and the Hizb does not operate
in or control any regions," Addow said. "Therefore, the only thing left
for al-Shabaab now is Amniyat, and it is necessary to find other
intelligence measures to fight them because the only thing that can be
used against intelligence is intelligence. A uniformed man cannot defeat
an undercover man."
Former Somali parliamentarian Mohamud Abdullahi Weheliye Waqaa said
the government must improve its ability to gather and analyse
intelligence to identify the links between active Amniyat cells and
Godane.
Government forces should consider borrowing
some of al-Shabaab's tactics, such as infiltration and undercover field
operations, he said. "I think it would be good if the government created
a unit trained to carry out [undercover] operations within al-Shabaab,"
Waqaa told Sabahi.
Waqaa, who served in the transitional parliament until 2012, received
death threats while in office due to his outspoken positions against
al-Shabaab.
In 2011, al-Shabaab leaders such as Mukhtar Robow Ali and Omar
Hammami, better known as Abu Mansour al-Amriki, called Waqaa an "ally to
the enemies of Islam" and reportedly called for his beheading. In 2012,
Ali offered $100,000 for his killing, according to local media.
Waqaa said a new comprehensive approach is needed to break down
al-Shabaab, including effectively using the Amniyat fighters who have
been arrested as leverage to uncover information to better understand
al-Shabaab's tactics.
Amniyat operatives favoured by Godane:
Amniyat operatives only take orders from Godane, said Sheikh Mohamed
Farah Ali al-Ansari, head of the Somali government's rehabilitation
centres.
"Amniyat is in charge of assassinations and works in secret," he told
Sabahi. "They are assigned to assassinate anyone who opposes the
group's ideology -- both within the movement and outside of it. No
questions arise about anyone they kill."
Members of this elite group receive extra incentives not offered to any other branch within al-Shabaab, according to al-Ansari.
"Amniyat gets the biggest share of the budget allocated to al-Shabaab
troops," he said. "They are given mobile phones with credit, brides and
cash as a way to encourage them."
While Godane is known to be Amniyat's commander, there are no known
middle-ranking leaders because Godane constantly changes them, al-Ansari
said.
In addition, foreigners are rarely allowed to participate in Amniyat
missions because its operatives are required to blend in with the Somali
public.
"Foreign [fighters] conduct training for Amniyat [since] most of them
are trained individuals whose knowledge is leveraged," he said, adding
that foreign fighters join the Jabhad branch during battles.
Members of Amniyat sleeper cells are scattered in different regions
and operate in secret, al-Ansari said, making it difficult to track and
eliminate them.
"No group is aware of the others. For example, the groups that work
in Benadir and Baidoa do not know anything about one another. They
receive the military training, and then each unit receives separate
secret training [on individual missions] ," al-Ansari said.