Al Shabaab — the newly emboldened Islamic militant group that attacked the Westgate mall
and repelled a raid by SEAL Team Six
"Few Americans had ever heard of al Shabaab before the fall of 2013. That changed on Sept. 21, when gunmen armed with AK-47s entered the Westgate Mall, a suburban-style shopping center in an upscale neighborhood of Nairobi, Kenya, and began calmly, methodically hunting down and murdering shoppers, one by one.
The massacre claimed the lives of at least 67 civilians and injured 200, including several participants in a children’s cooking competition sponsored by a local radio station. The Kenyan military surrounded the mall and initiated a rescue operation, but it was four days before the siege ended, by which point al Shabaab — often translated as The Youth — had made a definitive and bloody mark on the international consciousness.
And the group’s proven ability to recruit new members from around the world, including the Somali expat community in Minnesota, has American officials worried that the group could mount an attack on a domestic target — for instance, the Mall of America, in Bloomington, Minn.
Meanwhile, just a week after the mall attack, al Shabaab’s renown received another major boost. On Oct. 4, members of SEAL Team Six, the storied commando unit that killed Osama Bin Laden, mounted a predawn raid on a small house in the Somali fishing village of Barawe.
After being spotted as they crept toward the house, the SEALs came under heavy fire, eventually withdrawing after an hour of intense fighting without apprehending Ikrima." BusinessInsider
And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars,
...but the end shall not be yet.
Mark 13:7
Men's hearts failing them for fear,
and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth:
Luke 21:26
For from within,
out of the heart of men,
proceed evil thoughts, ..... murders,
Mark 7:21
