Westgate Siege Sign Of Brutal Struggle With Al-Shaabab

The attack on the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi by Islamist militants from the Somali-based al-Shabaab terrorist group is a direct product of the long-running failure of western powers and African Union countries to end more than 20 years of anarchy in the "failed state" ofSomalia. But it also reflects the outcome of a brutal power struggle within al-Shabaab that has brought the group's hardline global jihadist wing to the fore. At first glance the Westgate atrocity simply looks like a vicious reprisal for successful military operations undertaken in southern Somalia by the 4,000 Kenyan...