International Crisis Group, Horn of Africa analyst Rashid Abdi says al-Shabab has a decentralized leadership structure that has been vulnerable to dissent.

VOA: standard.2009.12.23

Rashid Abdi says the bombing has convinced many ordinary Somalis that al-Shabab is increasingly being controlled by foreign fighters, who have no regard for Somali lives.

VOA: standard.2009.12.23

Falluja's Khilafa al-Rashid mosque was being used as a base for military operations, he said.

CNN: Troops find hostage 'slaughterhouses' in Falluja

Representative-Elect MURPHY: Well, you know, I served in Baghdad, Iraq, and the district's called al-Rashid Baghdad, with 1.5 million Iraqis.

NPR: Patrick Murphy: From Iraq War to Congress

The Paris exhibition ends in 1957 with a fine drawing by Frank Lloyd Wright of a monument to the legendary caliph Haroun al-Rashid.

ECONOMIST: Babylon