Who Is Al-Shabab and Is It a Threat to the US?

For years, terrorist group al-Shabaab has carried out terrorist attacks in Somalia and neighboring countries--culminating in Thursday’s attack on Garissa University College in Kenya that has left several dozen dead.

A member of the Kenyan Defence Forces stands guard at the Garissa University campus after an attack by Somalia's Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab gunmen in Garissa on April 2, 2015. At least 70 students were massacred when Somalia's Shebab Islamist group attacked a Kenyan university today, the interior minister said, the deadliest attack in the country since US embassy bombings in 1998. AFP PHOTO / CARL DE SOUZA Photo credit should read CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images

For years, the terrorist group al-Shabab has carried out attacks in Somalia and neighboring countries—culminating in Thursday’s attack on Garissa University College in Kenya that left 147 dead and 79 injured, Kenya’s government confirmed.

About a month ago, al-Shabab issued a threat to malls in the United States, including the Mall of America, but a Homeland Security representative said at the time there’s no credible plot against American shopping malls. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said in February, “Anytime a terrorist organization calls for an attack on a specific place, we’ve got to take that seriously.”

Some members of al-Shabab are Somali-Americans from places like Minneapolis, New York, New Jersey, and California, the Council on Foreign Relations think tank said.

So, who are Somalia’s al-Shabab?

It has been deemed a terrorist organization aligned with al-Qaeda, and the group’s name means “The Youth” in Arabic. It started off as a radical wing of Somalia’s Union of Islamic Courts, which controlled the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in 2006.