Al-Shabab, the Islamic extremist group behind the recent siege on an upscale mall in Nairobi, Kenya, has since carried out attacks on Kenyan towns near the Somalia border.
The group has threatened to continue the violence until Kenyan troops withdraw from Somalia, and even as forensic experts work to put the pieces together and determine the death toll after the devastating terrorist attack on Nairobi’s Westgate mall, analysts are beginning to ask what is next for al-Shabab.
“The concern is that because al-Shabab is not really a conventional threat anymore, and yet they clearly want to retain their credibility and visibility, their option is to conduct these kinds of attacks,” Mark Schroeder, vice president of Africa Analysis at Stratfor, told Trend Lines.