Africa’s Terror Crescent A spate of attacks shows jihad’s long reach on the Continent.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/africas-terror-crescent-1455667680

For all the attention attracted by the battle against Islamic State in the Middle East, Islamism is also wreaking havoc in Africa. Jihadist groups control territory stretching from the Horn of Africa to the Mediterranean coast and south to Nigeria, and that crescent was ablaze this weekend.

Al Shabaab on Saturday took responsibility for a bomb that ripped a yard-long hole in a Daallo Airlines plane while it was flying from Mogadishu to Djibouti on Feb. 2. The would-be bomber blew himself out of the cabin, while in a miracle the other passengers and the crew survived.

Al Shabaab, which is al Qaeda’s Somalian franchise, called the attack “retribution for the crimes committed by the coalition of Western crusaders.” Al Shabaab said it intended to bomb a Turkish Airlines flight but switched targets after bad weather forced the Turkish carrier to cancel. The Daallo plane was carrying many of the passengers from the cancelled Turkish flight. Ankara, a NATO member, is building a military base in Somalia and contributes to antiterror efforts in Africa. READ MORE AT SITE

 

 

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