Could Al-Shabab Topple Somalia’s Government?
Just a few months ago, the going story on al-Shabab, an Islamic insurgent group in Somalia, was that it could carry out well-coordinated, very deadly attacks, but posed no existential threat to the country’s central government, weak as it may be. Now, after a series of bombings on Tuesday that culminated with the brazen killing of at least 30 people, including six members of parliament, al-Shabab has shown itself to be far more powerful than that, and Somali state officials tell TIME they fear the Western-backed government could fall any time. Tuesday’s attack saw just two al-Shabab fighters storm the Muna Hotel in Mogadishu early in the morning, gunning down bystanders outside and hotel staff, armed guards and parliamentarians inside before blowing themselves up. The fact that they succeeded in killing so many people at a hotel frequented by security forces and politicians, many of them armed themselves, was a striking symbol of the government’s impotence. “The government does not hav
