Al Shabab 101: What is the Somali terrorist group?

In Feb. 2012, the group's leader, Mukhtar Abu al-Zubair, pledged loyalty to Al Qaeda. But it's as easy to claim a relationship with a high-profile terror group as it is easy to wear a Manchester United T-shirt or a Yankee cap on game day. So how much contact do the Somali militia fighters in Mogadishu and Kismayo really have with the ideologues, funders, and operation men within the various Al Qaeda affiliates scattered across the Arabian peninsula, the Afghan borderlands, the African Sahel, and elsewhere? Western security experts say there is evidence that Al Qaeda provides some training on use of suicide bombings, but area experts question whether this is simply skills sharing from freelance jihadists traveling from war zone to war zone on their own initiative.