HIGHLIGHTS OF NIF ROLE IN THE GREATER HORN OF AFRICA

Somalia
Somalia 's premier Islamist militia, AI AI, which was once backed by Sudan , has morphed into an Islamic Court based in Mogadishu with its own militia to enforce Sharia and spread its operations beyond Mogadishu to the cities of Merca and Kismayo in the south. In August 2000, a so-called Transitional National Government (TNG) was installed in Mogadishu , and offered AI AI through the Islamic Courts an opportunity to become institutionalized in the new government. The TNG was the product of a national reconciliation conference held in Arta , Djibouti that received significant international support including the UN Security Council and Secretary-General, the Arab League, the OAU, and the EU, and nearly all neighboring states. A coalition of factional leaders, known as the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council, that is backed by neighboring Ethiopia has helped to keep the TNG and its Islamist ally, AI AI, from expanding their influence in Somalia . In 2000 and 2001, AI AI unsuccessfully intervened in a power struggle between factions in the autonomous administrative region of Puntland.
Somalia appears to be host of an Al Qaeda cell that helped organize the failed missile attack against an Israeli airline and the suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa , Kenya . Kenyan authorities, working with their U.S. counterparts captured Al Qaeda operative Suleiman Abdalla Salim Hemed in Mogadishu in March 2003. Also known by the noms de guerre, "Ngaka" and "Chuck Norris," Abdalla, who ran several businesses in Mogadishu , was implicated in the 1998 bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and the 2002 Mombasa bombings. He is in U.S. custody awaiting trial. The extent of Al Qaeda's continued involvement with AI AI is not known. The Bush administration had designated two leading AI AI commanders as Al Qaeda allies and ordered their assets frozen, and, according to one source, after September 11, 2001 , AI AI sent 300 fighters to assist Al Qaeda against U.S. forces in Afghanistan .
Kenya
The greatest Islamist presence in Kenya is to be found in its Somali-inhabited North Eastern Province where the AI AI has actively recruited members over a number of years and has sought to spread Islamic fundamentalism. AI AI appears to have linked up with the now banned Kenyan branch of the Al Qaeda-associated Saudi-based charity Al Haramain to create support among Kenya Somalis and Somali refugees in Kenya . Al Qaeda appears to regard Kenya as a ready target for its anti-Israeli and anti-American terrorism. The Kenyan government's increasingly effective anti-terrorism campaign has led to the capture and expulsion of a number of suspected Al Qaeda operatives. However, the country's Muslim leadership has expressed its considerable concern over what it perceives as strong-armed tactics used in the Muslim community by Kenyan anti-terrorism agents. These tactics have provoked considerable resentment, and may be contributing to a radicalization of Kenyan Muslim youth, many of whom find seductive Bin Laden's rhetoric of social justice.

Arabic Forum