Al-Shabaab Amniyat Branch Tasked With Protecting Godane

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.

Hiiraan Online