Revenge or Reward ? The case of Somalia ’ s suicide bombers

This article explores the social mechanisms that lead to the emergence of suicide attacks in new theatres, as well as factors influencing the frequency of such suicide attacks, by studying one of the states in which suicide attacks have most recently occurred – Somalia. The article argues that a suicide attack in the Somali setting seems to be a well-planned reaction to diplomatic or military moves by opposing parties in the conflict. However, it also poses that the initial emergence of suicide attacks in Somalia is grounded in ideological elements new to Somalia. The article thus argues that while frequency variations in suicide attacks are best understood as the result of rational calculations within an organisation, ideological elements and organisational belief systems have to be explored in order to understand the initial adoption of suicide attacks in Somalia.


Introduction
In early March 2007, Adam Salad Adam started work as a salesman, selling watches, clothes and electronics to Ethiopians and Somalis in the vicinity of Tarbuunka in Mogadishu, Somalia.On 26 March, he drove his Toyota through the first checkpoint guarding a local Ethiopian base.Adam Salad Adam's car was loaded with explosives; his plan was to detonate the charges as close as possible to the Ethiopian military base.He did not intend to escape from the explosion.He was a suicide bomber, part of a relatively new phenomenon in Somalia.
When the car exploded at the gate of the base, close to the cantina of the Ethiopians, 63 Ethiopian soldiers died and 50 were wounded.The 26 March attack was the first Somali suicide bombing that was filmed, a film that was later posted on the Internet.It signalled a new trend in Somalia.Before 2006, there had been no recorded suicide attacks in Somali history; from 2006 to February 2010 (when this article was written), there were 20 confirmed suicide attacks, as well as several other alleged cases.Sub-Saharan Africa, for the first time, witnessed a theatre with the systematic and prolonged use of suicide bombings.The Somali case is part of a global pattern.In the last ten years, suicide attacks were adopted for the first time in Afghanistan (9 September 2001), in Chechnya (7 June 2000) and in Iraq (26 February 2003).[1] Bruce Hoffman has found that 80 per cent of suicide attacks since 1968 occurred after 11 September 2001.[2] There have been many attempts to explain the phenomenon of suicide bombing.One approach is to focus on individual suicide bombers and their ostensible psychological or economic problems.However, the consistency of social and/or psychological problems amongst suicide bombers varies from case to case -being absent in the Sri Lankan, Iraqi, Pakistani and Palestinian cases but present in the Chechnya and Afghanistan cases.[3] It is important to note that the focus on individual psychological/economic/social factors fails to explain longer suicide campaigns.In order to sustain a long-term suicide campaign, several individuals have to be involved.Suicide attacks are thus a group phenomenon rather than an individual phenomenon, and in most suicide attacks there are organisations involved.[4] Systematic recruitment efforts, experienced planners and logistics are important factors in the execution of any sustained organisational effort, including that of suicide attacks.[5] Suicide attacks can be viewed as a specific type of tactic employed in order to achieve a specific goal, as the result of a planning process, and as a tool comparable to other strategies in asymmetric warfare such as guerilla attacks or remotecontrolled bombs.The suicide bomber thus becomes the low-cost equivalent of a cruise missileable to seek out weak points in the defences of the enemy, and, in disguise, even with a potential stealth capacity.Applying suicide attacks may thus be seen as the result of learning from the successes of such strategies in other conflicts.In fact, in his book "Dying to Win", Robert A Pape focuses on learning from the successes of suicide tactics as one of the major factors that prompt an organisation to adopt suicide terrorism.[6] Pape focuses on suicide attacks as an organisational phenomenon, and his approach examines the adoption of suicide tactics as a reflection of rational cost-benefit calculations on the part of strategic decision makers.However, Pape's claims have been strongly criticised.Assaf Moghadam shows that only four out of 17 suicide terrorist campaigns have led to a successful outcome.[7] Similarly, Brym and Arj show that Palestinian groups implemented suicide strategies despite clear knowledge that these strategies had few positive political effects.[8] Their critique is timely but may overlook the tactical gains that suicide strategies can achieve and the smaller local rewards that improve the standing of the implementing organisation.A conflict does not need to be won through suicide attacks in order for a suicide strategy to be applied so as to gain advantage over an enemy or a rival.Suicide attacks provide valuable media exposure to groups in asymmetric conflict situations, drawing local and possibly global attention to their grievances, and creating a lowcost and sustainable environment of insecurity that can force the opposition to the negotiating table.[9] When applied in a state-building context, suicide bombing also attracts attention to the failures of the state-builders.[10] Suicide attacks can also, in the right circumstances, be a method of generating grass-roots support for an insurgency.The use of suicide attacks becomes a demonstration of ideological commitment, as the act itself demonstrates a willingness to make a total sacrifice for a cause.[11]It may also be a good alternative for hitting hardened and wellprotected targets that would anyway have created casualties for the attacker.[12] Suicide attacks thus provide recruitment advantages for an organisation against other rivals' armed factions that are fighting the same enemy.This is the essence of Mia Bloom's so-called out-biding thesis, which views suicide attacks as a recruitment strategy in the competition with other groups fighting a similar enemy.[13] Why so few suicide bombers?
According to the line of argumentation above, the initial adoption of suicide attacks and the frequency of such attacks should correlate with a belief that some form of organisational reward (in this life), either politically or tactically, is estimated by the challenger to be sufficient to justify the costs of suicide bombing -namely the deaths of the suicide bombers and potential hostility towards the strategy owing to local and international antipathy.These explanations see suicide attacks as the result of a rational calculation process, where the initial adoption becomes a result of learning, of seeing examples of its successful adoption both locally and internationally, and of employing suicide attack as a form of military tactic, employed to gain advantage at a tactical level against an enemy or popularity in the face of rivals.Frequencies of suicide attacks should thus increase when such strategies are needed and when organisations are facing hardship, trying to establish themselves in new areas or trying to gain attention.Why then do not all organisations employ suicide attacks when they can gain from it?Firstly, the high human cost may limit the application of suicide bombing strategies to desperate situations.Ami Pedahzur, Stephen Hopgood and Berman and Latin, for example, see suicide attacks as a strategy in asymmetric warfare, in which one party is superior to another party.Suicide attacks then become the desperate strategy of a weak opponent challenging a stronger enemy.[14] Yet factions in Somalia have fought asymmetric battles without resorting to suicide attacks, being defeated and destroyed.In their "Club model", Berman and Latin also suggest that organisations that have high entry costs for members, and thus have very committed members, are the most common employers of suicide attacks.However, this overlooks the high entry costs and high commitment of several insurgent organisations that nevertheless have not led to the application of suicide attacks.[15] Another approach argues that suicide attacks are more a question of revenge.Pedahzur claims that counter-terrorism strategies actually influence the decision to apply suicide attacks.Collective punishment and large-scale killings create an environment where suicide action becomes more accepted.[16] Barry Weingast and Rui de Figueiredo's argument is that violence tends to follow a retaliatory pattern, resulting in cycles of violence.[17] Robert J. Brym and Bader Araj stress the importance of the counter strategies; they claim that extreme countermeasures, such as assassinations and the use of heavy artillery, lead to an increase in suicide attacks.[18] Araj also points out that suicide attacks can be used as a form of revenge, a way to punish an opposing enemy for atrocities.[19] He illustrates this point by showing how, by 2006, Palestinians were already aware of the fact that suicide attacks increased extremism and determination in Israel, yet nevertheless they supported suicide attacks.[20]Such an approach seems related to a psychosocial approach, exploring collective traumas.Evelin Lindner claims that collective/group humiliation, the feeling that 'our' societies are worse off than our enemies', mixed with historical entrepreneurs playing on these feelings, may create terrorism, including suicide terrorism.[21] Her view was that collective experiences may create fertile ground for suicide strategies; therefore, a humiliating invasion and a high frequency of war traumas become factors that could act as motivators for group actions.Luca Ricolfi sees collective humiliation such as this as a factor for increasing recruitment, making suicide missions easier to conduct, and enabling other motives to operate, for example the need for fame.The humiliation would make the general population more appreciative of the act of the suicide bomber, thus ensuring that a suicide bomber wanting fame and sympathy would get this.[22] One of Robert Pape's arguments may seem to run parallel with this type of argument, as he maintains that suicide attacks are the result of occupation, that they are a form of resistance against an invader.However, there are frequent experiences of violence, humiliation and dreadful collective experiences around the world, and perhaps particularly so in the case of Somalia and the general region of the Horn of Africa, that do not lead to any form of suicide attack, even though some of them pit a Christian occupying power/invader against Muslims; there must be other mechanisms at work as well.[23] Perhaps religion or culture could be such mechanisms?[24] Mia Bloom argues that community acceptance (or rejection), often influenced by elements within the local culture, is essential in determining both the initial adoption and the frequency of suicide attacks.[25] Another purported explanation focuses on the religious rationality behind suicide attacks.David Bukay, for example, argues that suicide bombing is created by religious beliefs.Bukay claims that Islam in particular has a clear theological foundation for suicide attacks, and that this foundation is a vital factor in explaining why suicide attacks occur.[26] Stephen Dale's argument runs parallel to Bukay's, suggesting that cultural traits of resistance activated when Islam faces occupation powers create suicide bombing, rather than traits of Islam per se.[27] However, any explanation focusing on the general traits or culture of Islam, or even Islamic resistance to invasions, is highly problematic, particularly in the Somali case.Somalis have been fighting several wars with neighbouring Christian-dominated Ethiopia since the sixteenth century, yet suicide attacks only occurred in 2006.Given that Somalia is overwhelmingly a Muslim country, and that suicide attacks are a relatively new occurrence despite a lengthy period of civil war, explanations that highlight Islam as a causal factor seem to be misleading, even when ostensibly Christian nations have engaged in Somalia before, such as the United States (1993)(1994), and Ethiopia's, albeit short, interventions (1996,1998).Another possible approach is to limit the scope more and to examine specific ideologies within Islam.Salafism, or Salafi jihadism, has been blamed for the spread of suicide bombings.[28] Such an approach also encounters large problems.As Sheik Khalil Ameer from the former Eritrean Islamic Jihad and Sheik Ali Gawish of the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood express it, mixing elements from Salafism with other types of Islam is relatively common, and some groups will retain some elements from mainstream Salafism while discarding others.[29] Salafists are far from a homogeneous group; the term itself is broad and vague and can be misleading and overly broad when applied to politics and ideological studies.Even when Salafi jihadism is defined narrowly, it encounters problems.As Thomas Hegghammer points out, there were few Salafi jihadist groups that carried out suicide attacks before 2000, so Salafi jihadism in itself fails to offer a satisfying explanation for suicide attacks.[30] A more specific approach may perhaps be needed.Such an approach may avoid the trap of generalising about vague concepts such as religion or culture, while at the same time maintaining the focus on elements within a religious/ ideological belief system held by a particular organization, or at least powerful elements within them.Such ideational elements could be common to some organisations rather than to a religion as such, and could be traits that even secular organisations may internalise.Diego Gambetta, for example, focuses on shaheedness, a destructive martyrdom, martyrdom in war rather than in peace.Farhad Khosrokhavar similarly emphasises "offensive martyrdom" which is employed against heretics and non-believers, while Muhamed M. Hafez emphasises "the culture of martyrdom" as a result of victimisation and the active self-reinforcing of organisational rites.However, a case study of Somalia may give us the opportunity to delve deeper into the belief systems of specific organisations, as well as sub-groups within them, and to identify more such elements.[31] It is important to note that rationality-focused explanations do not necessarily contradict a focus on components of organisational belief systems, as suggested by Elisabeth Kier, as such elements may define strategies or targets that are incorporated into a rational calculating process.Nor do rationality-focused arguments necessarily contradict a humiliation hypothesis, humiliation simply defining the goals of a rational actor.[32] This article claims that, in the Somali case, suicide bombings have followed a pattern that indicates a rational organisation strategy that is designed to face new challenges; it is a type of tactic chosen because of the benefits it has brought the organisation.Nonetheless, the third section of the article will claim that a benefitfocused hypothesis alone fails to explain the initial adoption of suicide attacks.The article argues that to understand the initial emergence of suicide terrorism in Somalia, it is necessary to explore the set of beliefs held by powerful elements of the Harakat Al Shebab group, who are the primary, if not the only, agent of suicide attacks inside Somalia.This is explored not by employing a broad concept such as Salafi jihadism or Islam, but rather by analysing the specific elements that separate the Shebab from other groups in the Somali setting.

The structure of the Somali suicide attacks
Although Somalis may have been involved in suicide attacks outside of Somalia before 2006, the first alleged suicide attack within Somalia took place on 18 September that year.[33] The attack targeted a convoy with the then-president of the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), Abdullahi Yusuf.The attack took place in confusing circumstances, and no person or organisation took responsibility, as the TFG had a strong interest in convincing the global media that it was a suicide attack by radicals with connections outside Somalia because of a need to gain Western support for their struggle against their then-rivals, the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC) in Mogadishu.Nevertheless, the next attack was confirmed by independent sources and was claimed by a group, and fits into a pattern when compared with later attacks: on 30 November 2006, an Ethiopian control post on a road leading into Baidoa (at Daynuunaay) was targeted by a suicide bomber.[34] A local commander of the Al Bayan Sharia courtformally part of the alliance of Sharia courts, the SCIC -Mohamed Ibrahim Said Bilal, claimed responsibility for the attack.Bilal's declaration of responsibility seemed to contradict his supposed superiors within the SCIC, and the latter publicly distanced themselves from the attack.[35] Bilal's special connections with more radical Afghanistan veterans within the SCIC may explain this difference of opinion, as he was at the time (through the Al Bayan court) working for Afghanistan veteran Muqtar Robow "Abu Mansoor", who later became one of the leaders of the Somali radical Al Shebab organisation.[36] Al Shebab has since become the foremost agent of suicide attacks in Somalia, indeed no other group has ever publicly acknowledged responsibility for suicide attacks.[37] This first confirmed attack illustrates how suicide attacks in Somalia were launched by a group of radicals within the Sharia courts rather than by the Sharia courts themselves.It also illustrates how the Sharia courts distanced themselves from the suicide attacks, even those against ostensibly Christian Ethiopia.In fact, it seemed as though the courts did not need to use suicide bombs, that there was a balance of power between the belligerents, and many believed that the Ethiopians would be defeated.[38] While Somalia's first suicide attack came in this period, the frequency compared with later periods was low, there being only one confirmed, and one possible attack in the whole of 2006.
In December 2006, local clashes escalated into outright war between the SCIC and the TFG supported by Ethiopia.The SCIC was rapidly defeated in a humiliating campaign.By the end of January 2007, the SCIC's institution was shattered and its members were on the run; the TFG and its Ethiopian allies asserted control over central and southern Somalia but refrained from occupying parts of the capital, Mogadishu.The start of Somalia's first wave of suicide attacks

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Volume 1, Issue 1 coincided with a large Ethiopian offensive to conquer parts of Mogadishu, an offensive that started in March 2007.[39] In the period from March to April, fighting was intensive in Mogadishu.[40] The impact of the fighting on the civilian population was devastating: [41] by late April, the UN estimated that at least 365,000 people had fled the city.[42] At the time, Al Shebab was one of many insurgency groups and was in the process of reestablishing itself after its collapse in late December 2006.Before its use of suicide attacks, Al Shebab was by and large ignored by the media, although this changed as suicide attacks became more frequent.Suicide attacks targeted Ethiopian bases and led to a large number of casualties ; thus they had a purely military value.The suicide wave also occurred simultaneously with the defeat of the insurgents; they were attacked and humiliated by superior forces, and were clearly outmatched.[43] The attacks could thus be the result of a wish for revenge because of a collective humiliation due to the Ethiopian intervention/invasion; indeed Adam Salad Adam's suicide video depicted his attack as a revenge tactic for a rape conducted by Ethiopian forces.[44] The Somali pattern of suicide attacks before 2007 do not indicate this.Firstly, although Ethiopia had intervened regularly during the years 1996-1998, this did not result in suicide attacks, even from Somali Islamist organisations, although Ethiopians severely crushed their bases.Not even during the larger Ethiopian-Somali Ogadeen war in 1977-78, taking place in Somali-inhabited lands, did suicide attacks occur.Secondly, although Ethiopia had had a military presence in areas of Somalia since spring 2006, only the two previously-mentioned suicide attacks (of which one seems to have been a bomb-attack rather than a suicide attack) were registered between September 2006 and March 2007.It could be argued that it was the general suffering of the Mogadishu population during the March-April offensive in 2007 that prompted the suicide wave, given that the campaign took place in densely-populated Mogadishu.However, the Mogadishu population had suffered before the March-April offensive, such as during the UNISOM II intervention in 1993-1994 (which at the time bin Laden argued was a Christian invasion) and the so-called Four Month War in 1991, and no suicide attacks occurred during these periods.Even in 2006, only one organisation, the Harakat Al Shebab, implemented the suicide attacks; thus humiliation must have influenced other insurgent groups differently.[45] From the end of May 2007, suicide attacks continued even after the Ethiopian withdrawal from Mogadishu and Somalia in 2009.Ethiopian presence was still felt in Somalia through fast raids and through support for Ethiopian allies.However, Ethiopian operations after 2009 were similar to Ethiopia's frequent interventions in 1995-2006, rapid raids rather than occupation, support for allies rather than commitment men of forces.Although Ethiopian forces deployed on short-term missions in Somalia before 2006 had provoked anger, they never provoked suicide missions, but after the 2009 withdrawal suicide missions continued.Suicide missions also took place during periods without intensive fighting.The suicide attacks seem rather to be correlated with the Shebab's need to gain attention, to establish itself in new areas or to damage peace and statebuilding processes.Once the March-April offensive ended, which was a humiliating experience for Shebab, the Ethiopians and their Somali allies won in Mogadishu, the rate of suicide bombings decreased and remained low until October 2008.This decline is best explained by the tactical situation on the ground.During the summer of 2007, Al Shebab was reorganising, was gaining attention on both the Somali and the international stage, and was adjusting to using guerrilla tactics in its operations.At this time, all rebel groups abstained from holding territories and resorted to hit-and-run attacks, which made them less vulnerable to large-scale TFG/ Ethiopian offensives, but they were expanding the geographical and operational scope of their attacks.Although the humiliating experience of the Ethiopian presence in Mogadishu remained, there was no desperate need to stop large TFG/Ethiopian offensives and no need to gain attention.The Shebab was on the offensive both in the media and militarily.
The first suicide attack after the summer of 2007 was the 11 October 2007 suicide attack targeted at the TFG prime minister in Baidoa, hitting a factory close to his hotel.It was the only suicide attack during the autumn of 2007, and it coincided with the Harakat Al Shebab establishing a military presence in the region, apparently drawing attention to Al Shebab when it was organising itself in a new area.[46] Following the October 2007 attack, only one attack took place over the next year.Suicide strategies were not needed, and other strategies served the aims of the Harakat Al Shebab perfectly.However, during the summer of 2008, the TFG started negotiating with a powerful and popular faction (as it was then perceived) of the opposition in Djibouti.At first these negotiations were cumbersome and few believed that they could succeed, but by the autumn of 2008 the talks produced tangible results.On 26 October 2008, the two parties in the Djibouti process -the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, Djibouti group (ARS-D) and the TFG -announced a ceasefire.[47] At the time, the agreement was popular within Somalia and was supported by the United States as well as by several of the veteran Islamists within the old SCIC.The mood amongst diplomats in Nairobi was frantically positive.As the focus shifted onto the Djibouti process, the insurgents lost media attention and were threatened politically and militarily; even worse, increased military deployments from the African Union and United Nation forces were seriously discussed.The insurgents' response was swift: the Shebab attacked the city of Merka.Almost simultaneously, a suicide video of Abdulaziz Bashar Abdullahi's attack against the African Union forces in April 2008 was released.Then Somalia's largest and most wellcoordinated wave of suicide attacks began on 29 October 2008.[48] The wave of attacks succeeded in shifting attention away from the diplomatic triumphs of the new negotiation process and back to the insurgency, and contributed to the deterrence of the potential UN and AU peacekeeping contingents for Somalia which were discussed within the United Nations and the African Union.[49] The Djibouti peace process was not derailed by the 29 October attacks, and once the Ethiopians withdrew from Somalia in January 2009, Mogadishu became more peaceful until May 2009.However, despite this, suicide attacks within Somalia increased.On 24 February, an alleged suicide bomber exploded when Somali police opened fire on a suspicious car in Mogadishu.On 21 February 2009, two suicide bombers -one suicide car-bomber and one bomber using an explosive vest -attacked the forces of the African Union in Mogadishu.[50] Both the new transitional government, led by former SCIC leader Sheikh Ahmed Sheikh Sharif, which was then popular both within Somalia and amongst the Diaspora but which is now in decline, and the fact that this transitional government was supported both by the West and by notable Islamists such as Yusuf Qaradawi, presented an increasing threat to the Shebab, drawing attention away from it.It is important to note that if the Ethiopian presence in Somalia caused the suicide bombing, its withdrawal from all of its permanent bases would be expected to lead to a decline, but it did not.As the Ethiopians withdrew, the numbers of attacks remained constant.The June 18 2009 attack by suicide bomber Muxamed Deerow Shiikh Aadam (zubayr) targeting the new government's head of security Omar Hashi Aden on 18 June 2009 -seems to have been thoroughly planned and caused chaos in the government's security apparatus, paving the way for the Shebab's tactical victories during the summer of 2009.In fact, suicide attacks in Somalia seem to have been thoroughly planned as part of an organisational strategy to balance the odds and to gain attention, and they have been highly effective.Suicide bombing seems to be guided by a rational process, in which the targets and the timing are carefully selected to achieve the political and strategic aims of the Harakat Al Shebab.While suicide bombing has not succeeded in bringing large strategic victories to these groups, it has succeeded in bringing them media attention and has contributed to a general environment of insecurity that can be used for propaganda purposes.
The initial humiliation of the Ethiopian intervention does not explain the pattern of the suicide attacks nor does the humiliation of the Mogadishu offensive during the spring of 2007.Suicide attacks took place even after Ethiopia had withdrawn most of their forces from Somali territory, in a period where the Ethiopian raids were very similar to past Ethiopian presence in Somalia during the civil war (which never led to suicide attacks), and during periods of relative peace.Political and military challenges facing the Shebab are better predictors of suicide attacks.For the Harakat Al Shebab, the main initiator of suicide attacks, it seems that suicide strategies remain a specific tool in their military and political campaigns, a tool comparable to guerilla attacks, ambushes, and remote-controlled bombs.However, the above discussion does not explain why a suicide bomber strategy has not been adopted by other factions in Somalia, and why Al Shebab and not other factions have implemented the majority of the attacks.

Why was suicide bombing adopted?
Bruce Hoffman has found that 80 per cent of suicide attacks since 1968 occurred after the September 11 attacks.[51] It seems as though the attention caused by the September 11 suicide bombing contributed to an increased interest in the strategy around the world, and Somalia is part of this pattern.Such an argument presents us with a riddle: if this interest was general, why did only one organisation in Somalia, the Harakat Al Shebab, publicly claim to use the strategy?[52] No other Somali organisation to date has ever published suicide videos or claimed responsibility for suicide attacks, and it is doubtful that any other organisation has attempted to use suicide tactics.[53] Other rival insurgent groups have been in desperate situations that could have justified suicide tactics, but they have nevertheless publicly refrained from using such tactics.[54] One reason for the lack of suicide bombings conducted by other organisations in Somalia is what Mia Bloom refers to as community rejection.Somali society has no tradition of suicide bombings, and to a certain extent the suicide tactic is alien to Somali culture -there has been no tradition of using suicide attacks in conflicts.There was no recorded suicide bombing in Somalia before 2006, and there is simply no historical tradition of suicide attacks.[55] In fact the Somali clan system to a certain extent discourages suicide bombings, as clans are seen as collectively responsible for the actions of individuals and suicide attacks could lead to retribution against a person's clan.The past fluidity of the Somali civil war, and its lack of ideology, and rather a focus on profit seeking also discouraged suicide missions.Many observers stated it was the Ethiopian intervention (occupation) that created suicide attacks.[56] However, previous interventions, which were shorter but in which Ethiopians took more direct control of land, and when the American-led AMISOM II or UNITAF more directly intervened or took control of large parts of Mogadishu, did not result in suicide attacks.Nor did Ethiopia's alleged occupation of the Somali-inhabited Ogadeen region, and various military campaigns this region, some with severe consequences and violations of human rights, result in suicide bombings.Moreover, only one out of many insurgent organisations, including other Islamist organisations, implemented suicide missions, even in the period of Ethiopian occupation 2006-2009.The most likely explanation for this is that the Islamist organisations that existed in previous periods but by 2007 was growing into a separate organisation.[57] In the end, the suicide tactic was only publicly adopted by the Shebab or Shebab affiliates, and began as the group consolidated into an organisation.
The Shebab organisation originally consisted of a core group, of which many had a background from Afghanistan; it was ideologically strong enough to transcend clan from an early stage.Two of these members were found guilty in Somaliland courts for attacks against Westerners as early as in 2003 and 2004.The attacks were not motivated by profit but rather by hostility towards the West, and not taking place in a combat situation, something new in Somalia at the time, it also took the risk of replacing the Somali flag with a black jihadi flag during the fighting over Kismayo in 2006, claiming that the former represented secular borders, creating tension between them and the more nationalistic elements within the Sharia courts.However, the success of the group meant that other elements were recruited: profit seekers, local militia that wanted to be on the winning side, as well as Diaspora motivated sometimes by nationalistic, sometimes by clanish reasons.Nevertheless, elements of the original core group remained important, if not dominating, within the organisation.Moreover, they dominated the training of new recruits, both international and Somali, in the core areas controlled by the organisation.[58] The worldviews of the old core group of Shebabs remained important, and the qualities of ideologies adopted by powerful elements of the organisation were very different from all other Somali factions.At least three ideological traits separated these elements from most of Somalia's political actors.The first trait was the organisation's use of special pan-Islamist and jihadist rhetoric, in some instances closely resembling the rhetoric of Al Qaeda, always tending towards praise when that organisation was mentioned while denying being a part of it.In the words of the old Shebab head of public relations Muktar Robow, "That is all there is to it.We are not part of them (Al Qaeda) but we love them very much."[59] Ideologically, the Shebab leaders often declared the need to resurrect the pan-Islamic caliphate, putting their local conflict in a global framework of good versus evil.In this sense, the enemy was not only Ethiopia but also the West.[60] In many ways, their rhetoric strongly echoed Farhad Khosrokhavar's focus on the transnationalism of some of the modern martyrs, namely Al Qaeda's focus on the Global Ummah.[61] The second trait separating the Shebab from other Somali organisations was their anti-nationalist rhetoric, as well as their critique of traditional Islamic groups in Somalia such as the Sufis.Admittedly, Shebab probably recruited from youth hostile to the Ethiopian intervention and with a nationalist motivation for joining, even using implicit nationalistic like references to Ethiopian occupation in some of their videos, but the rhetoric of the leadership was to a certain extent surprisingly anti-nationalist, revolutionary in a Somali setting where most fractions publically have claimed their allegiance to the Somali nation (although often functioning as mere clan fronts).[62] Most of the known Shebab top leaders have made strong anti-nationalist statements.Former spokesperson Muktar Robow is perhaps the Shebab leader who most clearly defined the Shebab's attitude towards nationalism and patriotism, stating that "a nationalistic, patriotic bond is against the (Muslim) brotherhood bond", as well as criticising the organisation for replacing the jihad with "patriotic resistance".[63] Shebab leaders strongly and explicitly distanced themselves totally from the nationalist agenda.[64] Symbolically, the Shebab even refused/ refuses to use the Somali flag, tearing it down wherever possible.In this sense the Shebab, or at least most of the Shebab leaders, depict themselves as sharing ideology and motivation with other radical organisations with similar goals; and with four out of the eight leaders in the Shura council in 2007 with a background from Afghanistan, this seemed natural.[65] The third trait also seems to have been borrowed from Al Qaeda -death worshipping, best illustrated by Abu Mansoor's remark Our brother Ma'alin and our brother Umar Dheere alias Abu Jabal.Many of those who were present during the formation of the group have also been martyred.Those who are still alive are also looking forward to death, in order to die for the same cause that others before them died for.[66] Shebab ideology, much more refined than its Somali predecessors, also provided stronger justifications for suicide attacks.Admittedly, there have been rifts even within the old core group of Shebabs -for example, between former press spokesman Muktar Robow and leader Abu Zubeir -but both parties, even the supposedly more moderate Muktar Robow, adhered to the elements described above, both in statements in the Somali press or on international jihadist websites and in interviews; and the two parties also seem to have become reconciled during the summer of 2009.[67] These three traits were important throughout the Shebab's organisational history and remain so today.Shebab leaders were thus the only Somali leaders that publicly and repeatedly praised Al Qaeda.They framed their struggle in a global context; this approach deviated from all mainstream and traditional religious views in Somalia.[68] This indicated a willingness to adopt ideology from organisations with similar views and also indicated admiration for Al Qaeda, a major implementer of suicide attacks.In fact, it was almost natural that Shebab in the end borrowed the suicide strategy, amongst other elements, from Al Qaeda.
The above line of argumentation supports Thomas Hegghammer's view that elements within specific ideologies need to be explored rather than abstract notions such as Islam, culture or Salafism.Any attempt to explain the adoption of suicide bombing in Somalia that focuses on Somali or Islamic culture or religion can be misleading.Somalia and Islam have been tied

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Volume 1, Issue 1 together for centuries during which there were no suicide attacks.Indeed, even today there are many Islamist organisations fighting alongside Al Shebab, but no known Somali Islamist organisation other than the Shebab implementing suicide tactics.An examination exploring the differences between the Shebab and the other Somali actors seems to indicate relatively large variations in ideology, and to show that there are certain tenets of some of the most powerful Shebab leaders that are alien to Somali society in general, but that are shared by other global jihadi actors.Rather than talking about an abstract notion of Somali culture or about religion per se, it may be more fruitful to talk about a specific belief system or a combination of more specific ideological elements.The most important point is that the Shebab's ideological traits contain indications that powerful elements within the organisation adopted ideological tenets from other organisations implementing suicide attacks -both indicating a willingness to learn from these organisations, in particular Al Qaeda, as well as providing justification for the use of suicide attacks.The fact that only the Shebab adopted suicide tactics seems to indicate that their openness to Al Qaeda's ideology, and the ideological elements borrowed from them justifying suicide attacks, are important in understanding their initial willingness to use suicide attack.In fact, the Al Qaeda-inspired ideological elements are what make the organisation stand out in the Somali political context.[69] The situation in 2006-2007 created a window of opportunity for the special elements of Shebab ideology as well as for the Shebab itself.Similarly, the Iraq crisis had an impact in Somalia, and hostility towards the West increased.[70] In this sense, humiliation did play a role but only because of the ideological elements that allowed it to have an influence, and it had little influence on the variations in the frequency of suicide bombings.Statements by the leaders of the organisation indicate elements of a very specific belief system that were used to justify the use of suicide attacks, and that indicated a willingness to learn from external organisations sharing these elements.In examining suicide attacks, it may be fruitful to explore specific belief systems and shared perceptions of the world within smaller groups, rather than for example exploring whole religions; to study more detailed elements rather than to generalise about a religion or even larger sub-groups within that religion.
Pape's claims regarding suicide tactics as a form of resistance to physical occupation are misleading, as it is not occupation per se that creates suicide attacks.It is perhaps a specific element of ideology that enables not only occupation but also perceived humiliation -such as the Danish cartoon incident frequently depicted in Shebab suicide videos -to have an impact; it may be a depiction of a world of eternal struggle between an imagined community, the Umma, and everyone else, rather than national resistance to Ethiopian intervention.

Journal of Terrorism Research Volume 1, Issue 1
The main finding of this article is that the frequency of suicide bombings in Somalia varies according to the strategic needs of the Al Shebab organisation, indicating that the use of suicide bombing is a product of strategic reasoning.Suicide bombing is thus the result of a strategic cost-benefit calculation, wherein groups use this suicide tactic to gain attention, to gain political advantage and, in a few cases, to gain military advantage.Only in one period of suicide attacks in Somalia, between March and April 2007, does the traumatisation hypothesis have explanatory power; but even within this period, Al Shebab's strategic needs provide a good alternative explanation.This suggests that a view that focuses on the organisation implementing suicide attacks in order to increase its own power explains variations in the frequency of the tactic's adoption in Somalia.
However, a focus on organisational needs and rewards does not fully explain the initial adoption of suicide bombings in Somalia.Other Somali organisations could have adopted suicide attacks as a tactic but chose not to.The Shebab differed from these organisations in several of the ideological traits which its leadership claims to adhere to.An approach focusing on organisational rewards or organisational suicide tactics is not enough to understand suicide bombings in Somalia.Ideological elements, creating a belief system that provides some form of justification for suicide tactics alien to Somali culture, had to be in place to enable suicide bombing to take root.This suggests that a study of organisational beliefs, also the beliefs of organisational sub-groups, in general can be fertile when attempting to explore the organisations that will respond to organisational needs by adopting suicide attacks.The findings suggest that suicide bombings may fruitfully be approached through a combined rational actor/belief systembased model.In the Somali case, this offers some hope as the organisation that so far has claimed responsibility for most suicide attacks in Somalia, the Shebab, has drastically expanded its new membership.With a possible shift in the ideological orientation of the Shebab, the organisation may evolve and become less willing to use suicide attacks.
, and other Islamist organisations active in Mogadishu 2006-2009, were different from the organisation implementing suicide attacks in Somalia in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and today, namely the Shebab.In fact, the development of suicide attacks to a certain extent follows the development of one single organisation, the Harakat Al Shebab, which until 2006 was a loose, informal network Journal of Terrorism Research Volume 1, Issue 1

Dr
Stig Jarle Hansen is one of the co-editors of the recent "Borders of Islam" anthology, Published at Colombia University Press, and has conducted extensive field research at the Horn of Africa as well as Yemen.Hansen holds a PHD from Aberystwyth, the University of Wales, and Mphils in History and Political Science from the University of Oslo/University of California at Berkeley.He is currently serving as associate professor in International Relations, Department of International, Environmental and Development Studies at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.This article was originally published on the 27/07/10 at http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~cstpv/jtr/ v1i1/jtr1_1_hansen_revenge.htmlBibliography Journal of Terrorism Research Volume 1, Issue 1 Speckhard, Anne & Akhmedova, Khapta (2006), "The New Chechen Jihad: Militant Wahhabism as a Radical Movement and a Source of Suicide Terrorism in Post-War Chechen Society", Democracy & Security 2 (1) 2006.Staff writer, "Somali Islamists claim car bomb attack", Mail & Guardian, 30 November 2006.Staff writer, "U.N. says 90,000 refugees return to Mogadishu", Reuters, 1 June 2007.Stern, Jessica (2003), Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill, New York, Ecco/ Harper Collins.United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (2007), Suicide Attacks in Afghanistan (2001-2007), Washington, United Nations.United Nations in Somalia "The Djibouti agreement", http://www.un-somalia.org/Djibouti_Agreement/index.asp (accessed 1 March 2009).United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Nairobi (2007), "Situation Report" Situation Report #41, 8 June.Victor, Barbara (2003), Army of Roses: Inside the World of Palestinian Women Suicide Bombers, Emmaus, PA, Rodale Press.Interviews Interview with anonymous Nigerian diplomat x1, Nairobi, 5 December 2008.Interview with x2, Mogadishu, 2 April 2009.Interview with Sheik x3, Mogadishu, 4 April 2009.Interview with Sheik x4, Mogadishu, 5 April 2009.Interview with x5, Mogadishu, 6 April 2009.Interview with x6, Mogadishu, 8 August 2009.Interview with x7, Mogadishu, 8 August 2009.Interviews with Al Khala's leader Sheik Khalil Ameer, 24 July 2009, Khartoum.Interview with Ikhwan spokesman Ali Gawish, 26 July 2009.Interview (telephone) with Abu Mansoor, Mogadishu/Nairobi, 20 September 2008.Interview (telephone) with Paddy Anakunda, ex-press spokesman for the African Union Forces Mogadishu, Oslo, 15 April 2008.Notes Journal of Terrorism Research Volume 1, Issue 1