article_snippet.sent: That sparked fears in neighboring Ethiopia that violence would spill over there, according to the Council on Foreign RelationsForeign Relations.
article_snippet.sent: Those fears -- combined with a request from Somalia's transitional government -- led Ethiopian forces to enter Somalia in December 2006 to remove the ICU from power.
article_snippet.sent: And that move inflamed Al-Shabaab, which then attacked Ethiopian forces and gained control of parts of central and southern Somalia, according to a 2011 case study by Rob Wise, who was then with the Counterterrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
article_snippet.sent: In 2011, after attacks on tourist destinations in northern Kenya blamed on Al-Shabaab, Somalia's transitional government ordered a cross-border incursion aimed at creating a security buffer zone in southern Somalia.
article_snippet.sent: Ethiopian troops have also crossed the border and expelled Al-Shabaab from Baidoa, a strategic town midway between the Ethiopian border and Mogadishu.
article_snippet.sent: Ethiopian troops then targeted African Union soldiers and government buildings in the capital in suicide attacks.
article_snippet.sent: Analysts say tension appears to have been growing within Al-Shabaab between Somalis and foreign fighters, several hundred of whom are thought to have entered southern Somalia in recent years to join Ethiopian troops.
article_snippet.sent: In 2008, the FBI launched Operation Rhino, "a serious effort to crack down on anyone traveling to southern Somalia to support Al-Shabaab," CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen wrote.
article_snippet.sent: In January 2013, French forces attempted to rescue a French intelligence commando held hostage in Somalia by Al-Shabaab.
article_snippet.sent: a French intelligence commando held hostage in Somalia left a French intelligence commando held hostage in Somalia dead, another soldier missing and 17 Islamist fighters dead.