Al Shabab, a terrorist splinter group from the Islamic Courts

For the first time in 17 years, Mogadishu is entirely under the control of a Somali government - be it with Ethiopian occupation. Ethiopian troops defeated insurgent militias in the streets of Mogadishu in April, but the security situation hasn't improved. Instead, the militias are now carrying out suicide bombings, daily bomb attacks and assassinations against government officials.

Splinter groups from the Islamic Courts are conducting these attacks. It's becoming clearer that Islamic Courts were only an umbrella for diverse groups each with a different agenda. One of those groups was the clan militias, led by a warlord nicknamed "Indha Adde", who held the biggest force within the Islamic Courts, they were used to defeat the warlords allied with the US. Another group was the Islamic Courts militia, mostly militias of the powerful businessmen in Mogadishu. Then there's the hardcore Al-Qaeda-type group, mostly Somalis who fought overseas alongside the Taliban and elsewhere, and unlike the other groups their aim was to capture the whole of Somalia. However, the leadership of the Islamic Courts were more realistic, and that's what kept this group in-check.

Once the Islamic Courts were ousted, the clan militias and most of the Islamic Courts militias give up their weapons and many joined the police or the military. But hardcore militant groups were set free, there was no more Islamic Courts leadership to constrain them. They renamed themselves Almujahidin Al-Shabab. This group is committed to fight, not only the Ethiopians, but any Somali government they don't consider Islamic (their brand of Islam).

So far they've carried out at least four suicide bombings, a tactic unknown before in Somalia. The most recent of these suicide attacks was against prime minister Ali Ghedi, though it wasn't the first against a senior government official. The latest suicide bomber was barely a teenager, it was painful to watch his prerecorded message. Though they might claim otherwise, leaders of the Islamic Courts have no control over this group.