Sources claim there have been at least four plots to attack affluent targets such as the Westgate mall. Photograph: Kabir Dhanji/EPA
It is only seven years since Ethiopian forces swept into Somalia with the political and military backing of the US to topple the Islamic Courts Union, an Islamist movement that had taken control of much of south and central Somalia after years of disastrous feuding between warlords. Ethiopia's vastly superior forces routed the youth militias loyal to the courts with hundreds killed or driven from the cities.
