Al-Shabaab training
Somali terror group al-Shabaab claimed responsability for deadly attack on Kenyan university Youtube screenshot

Somalia has issued bounties for 11 members of Somali terror group Al-Shabaab, which recently attacked a university college in Garissa, Kenya, killing 148 people.

Who are the Al-Shabaab militants?

Al-Shabaab, which means "The Youth", is a Somali terror group affiliated with al-Qaeda.

An off-shoot of the Islamic Courts Union – a rival administration to the Transitional Federal Government in Somalia – Al-Shabaab aims to overthrow the Somali government and impose its own version of Islam in the country.

It controlled Mogadishu and the southern region of Somalia from 2006 until 2011, when it was defeated by African Union peacekeepers.

What is Amniyat?

Amniyat is the intelligence division of Al-Shabaab. Its members are highly trained and their roles range from gathering intelligence to carrying out assassinations and bombing missions.

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.

The government offered $250,000 (£170,000) for the group's leader, Ahmad Umar, and $150,000 for the capture of Mahad Karate, who runs the Amniyat, the intelligence division of Shabaab, AFP reported.

Umar became the new leader of the group after his predecessor, Ahmed Abdi Godane, was killed in a US air strike in 2014.

Rewards of $100,000 were offered for the capture of nine other members, including the group's spokesman, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage.

Kenya offered $215,000 for a former Kenyan teacher, Mohamed Mohamud, who allegedly joined Al-Shabaab and is suspected of being one of the masterminds behind the Garissa massacre.

Al-Shabaab aims to overthrow the current Somali regime and end what the group perceives as an unjust occupation of Somali land by Kenyan troops, deployed in 2011.

The insurgents often carry out attacks in neighbouring Kenya killing dozens of people and negatively impacting local tourism, a big source of income for the country.

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