Al-Shabab considering shift to international agenda,

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The Somalia-based terrorist group al-Shabab has largely lagged other such groups when targeting attacks abroad and recruiting foreign fighters, but new leadership could change that, an international security expert recently said.

According to Fierce HomeLand Security, the Islamic insurgent group has been using violence to gain control in Somalia and impose Sharia law since 2006. Al-Shabab lost most of its territory in 2011, when it was pushed out of the country’s capital city of Mogadishu by coalition forces.

Amid this backdrop, the group’s changing leadership is determining whether it should pursue a greater foreign focus, said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence at the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institute.

“They are clearly involved in attacks abroad, certainly in Kenya”, she said during a May 21st event. “But there is more then one way to  the foreign enemy.”

One reason the number of foreign fighters joining al-Shabab has remained low is because many travelers from the United States to Somalia were treated badly, she said, adding that al-Shabab leadership now recognizes that that policy was counterproductive and is looking to change course.

Al-Shabab’s foreign agenda could rely largely on the type of relationship it wants to have with the Islamic State, commonly referred to as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, which is emerging as the biggest threat in the region since al-Qaeda.