Here’s a line you probably thought you’d never read: Pirates are helping terrorist groups smuggle weapons and maybe even fighters. Yeah, that’s a thing now.
“The United Nations and the United States are investigating at least two pirate kingpins for providing material support to terror groups,” according to a CNN report Monday morning. The terror groups in question, according to CNN, aren’t just a bunch of would-be militants. Instead it’s a pair of battle-hardened and dangerous groups in Somalia, the al Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab and an ISIS faction there.
Those connections come as unwelcome news for US military officials working to defeat ISIS and training the Somali military to beat back al-Shabaab, an Islamist group that has killed hundreds over the years. The anti-ISIS coalition is on track to defeat the group in its capitals in Syria and Iraq, but questions remain about the campaign’s ability to halt ISIS operations around the world — including in Somalia.
