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By
Dina Temple-Raston
Minneapolis, September 19, 2009 • Earlier this week, U.S. Special Forces
killed a man U.S. intelligence said was the link between an Islamic
militia in Somalia and al-Qaida in Pakistan. But he also had a
connection to the U.S. that has not been reported: He was a senior
instructor for new al-Shabaab recruits, including a handful of young
Somali-Americans from Minneapolis.
When FBI agents capture a terrorism suspect, one of the first things
they do is pull out mug shots so they can try to identify other possible
members of al-Qaida. And that's exactly what happened earlier this year
-- when some of the young Somali-Americans who trained in Somalia
returned to Minneapolis.
Intelligence officials tell NPR that when agents flipped to a picture of
one al-Qaida operative, several of the young men said they recognized
him.
His name was Salah Ali Nabhan. He's the man American commandos killed in
a daylight raid in southern Somalia on Monday.
The Minneapolis boys said they recognized him because he had been one of
their trainers in the camps in Somalia -- on loan from al-Qaida to boost
the training operations of a Somali militia called al-Shabaab.
"Usually people like Nabhan are jacks of all trade," said Bruce Hoffman,
a terrorism expert at Georgetown University. "They are particularly
skilled, as Nabhan was, in the fabrication of vehicular bombs,
particularly ones used for suicide attacks."
Vehicular bombs, or car bombs, are what landed Nabhan on the FBI's most
wanted list. Officials say he rigged up a car bomb in 2002 to blow up an
Israeli-owned resort in Kenya, and Americans have been hunting for him
for years. A ringleader of an al-Qaida cell in Kenya, he may also have
played a role in the East Africa embassy attacks in 1998.
Now the FBI is concerned about Nabhan's Minnesota connection. Agents
worry that Nabhan taught Somali-Americans in the camps how to be suicide
bombers, and that they might come back and attack in the United States.
It isn't a wild theory. One of the Minneapolis boys who returned from
Somalia earlier this year pleaded guilty to terrorism-related charges in
July. His court-appointed attorney said the young man had been recruited
by al-Shabaab to become a suicide bomber. Another young Minnesotan,
Shirwa Ahmed, drove a car bomb into a government compound in Somaliland
last November. He and Nabhan were in the training camps at the same
time.
Beyond the Minneapolis connection, there's another reason Nabhan was
important. He helped give al-Qaida a foothold in the Horn of Africa.
"Al-Qaida's hallmark has always been both opportunistic and talent
spotters," Hoffman said. "I think they saw a group that was in a zone
that was already rife with instability and chaos," and they wanted to
take advantage.
Al-Shabaab is a ragtag militia in Somalia that came together originally
to fight Ethiopian troops that had invaded Somalia. Now it is focused on
overthrowing Somalia's transitional government and setting up an Islamic
one in its stead. Nabhan, who has had long-standing ties in Somalia,
became the bridge that helped bring al-Shabaab and al-Qaida together.
His death this week may hobble al-Qaida's efforts in Somalia.
"His elimination is something that will not sever the links between
al-Qaida and al-Shabaab, but certainly will fray them," Hoffman said.
The operation that unfolded in the Somali desert Monday was the stuff of
movies.
US. intelligence officials say Special Forces helicoptered into a remote
part of the desert and fired on a convoy of trucks racing across the
sands.
When the shooting stopped, officials were able to identify Nabhan's
remains. The DNA test results on the others killed in the attack haven't
come back yet. U.S. officials said they haven't ruled out that some of
the young Minneapolis men might have been among them.
Source: NPR, September 16, 2009
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