section_path: History
section_name: History
paragraph_text: History
  
  Al-Shabaab was founded in Las Anod in 2003. During that same year, the American Central Intelligence Agency began covert operations targeting the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) by backing anti-ICU Somali warlords with the aim of preventing the formation of a ' Taliban like' state in Somalia that could provide haven to al-Qaeda. In 2005, Mogadishu was hit by a significant wave of unexplained assassinations and disappearances. The Islamic Courts claimed that covert US government operations and warlords were targeting high ranking ICU officials. According to C. Barnes & H. Hassan, "It was in this context that a military force known as al-Shabaab ('the Youth') emerged, related to but seemingly autonomous of the broad based Courts movement." Contrary to many reports, al-Shabaab was neither the armed wing of the Islamic Courts Union nor its most important military component. Al-Shabaab fighters operated as the youth wing of the Courts' militia and gained a fierce reputation during the war against the CIA-backed Somali warlord alliance in Mogadishu in early to mid-2006, distinguishing themselves within the ICU's military wing.