2016 will go down on record as annus holibilis for the Somalia based–al-Qaeda affiliated militant group, al-Shabaab. The first quarter of 2016 and particularly the month of March, was the bloodiest for al-Shabaab in a long time. It lost ten commanders, and hundreds of militants and middle level commanders to government forces including American drones, AMISOM and the Somali National Army. There are fears that an attack on the militants’ headquarters at Jilib last Thursday could have claimed a few more high value lives. Initial reports indicated that 20 were killed but it was not clear as to the identity of those that were eliminated. 
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