Al-Shabaab: the growing menace of the al-Qaeda affiliate In the eyes of Western intelligence, the growing threat of the country's al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab movement and its British ties makes it the new Afghanistan. Al-Shabaab was formed in 2006 from the ashes of the Islamic Courts Union which had been fighting the Somali transitional government for control of the country. Estimates of al-Shabaab's size vary, but it is believed to consist of several thousand fighters, including foreigners from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Gulf region as well as the US and Britain. Today, having been forced out of the capital Mogadishu by African Union troops, it exercises control over vast swathes of the south towards the Kenyan border, where it imposes Sharia law. Earlier this month, al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri formally welcomed al-Shabaab to the terror network's ranks. For militant young Britons looking for a cause, Somalia is currently the hottest ticket. An estimated 200 Britons and Americans have travelled to the Horn of Africa in the past six years, intelligence agencies say, to help al-Shabaab wage terror attacks against government troops in Somalia and plan assaults further afield. In July 2010, al-Shabaab claimed twin suicide bombings that killed 74 football fans watching the World Cup Final in Uganda's capital Kampala. At present, up to 50 Briton of Somali, Pakistani, Yemeni, Bangladeshi and North African heritage are thought to be among its ranks. Their British passports mean they can join the many immigrants who travel to East Africa and back to the UK without raising too many flags. Al Shabaab draws them in with the help of a sophisticated media arm which is thought to now have three to four people working on it full-time - among them a British Pakistani whose London accent is heard voicing documentary reports of military battles. The group has also taken to Twitter where it engages in regular spats with spokesman for the Kenyan government, which late last year invaded Somalia. "We believe there are a substantial number of Brits involved in al-Shabaab," Abdullahi Boru, Hornof Africa Analyst for the International Crisis Group, told The Daily Telegraph. The movement is using social media to market itself and using the narrative of the oppressed to attract recruits. Al Shabaab itself is at present thought to be too absorbed with battles at home to focus on exporting its terror tactics. But British security forces are paying close attention amid concerns that, given its newly-forged links to al Qaeda, a proponent of global campaigns, British recruits might bring their new-found terror skills to wreak havoc. The most obvious target for such an attack is the London 2012 Olympics. In 2010 Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, said it was "only a matter of time before we see terrorism on our streets inspired by those who are today fighting alongside al Shabaab."