Daily Times

A bloody rivalry has emerged between extremist groups in Somalia as the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab hunts upstart fighters allied to Daesh, who have begun demanding protection payments from major businesses, officials tell The Associated Press.

The rivalry supports some observers’ suspicions that Al-Shabab, now scrambling to defend its monopoly on the mafia-style extortion racket that funds its high-profile attacks, is drifting from its long-declared goal of establishing a strict Islamic state. The manhunt began in October with the killing of a top leader of the Daesh-linked group by a suspected Al-Shabab death squad in the capital, Mogadishu, according to several Somali intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

When the body of Mahad Maalin, deputy leader of the Daesh-affiliated group, was found near a beach in Mogadishu, it set off a hunt for suspected Daesh sympathizers within Al-Shabab’s ranks, officials said. Maalin had been suspected of trying to extend his group’s reach into the capital.

Published in Daily Times, December 8^th 2018.