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Nairobi,
Kenya, September 26, 2009 — FBI are investigating whether an American
Somali was involved in a suicide bombing on a peacekeeping base in
Somalia that killed 21 people, a family friend said Friday.
Abdirahman Warsame told The Associated Press that FBI agents in the city
of Seattle took DNA samples from Mohamed Mohamud, cut off his phone
lines and warned him not to speak to the media. He had been at the
family's home on Thursday, two days after FBI agents visited.
They told Mohamud his son Omar may have been in one of two stolen U.N.
cars that Islamic insurgents detonated in an African Union peacekeeping
base last Thursday. The markings on the cars meant they were not subject
to the usual security checks and were allowed onto the base. Seventeen
Burundian and Ugandan peacekeepers were among the 21 killed in the Sept.
17 attack, al-Shabaab, a local Islamic militia, said was in retaliation
for a U.S. commando raid on Sept. 14 that killed al-Qaida operative
Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in southern Somalia.
Mohamud had been prepared for the visit by the U.S. federal agents
following Internet reports that an American had been involved in the
bombing and calls from relatives in Somalia, Warsame said.
"Relatives in Somalia told Mohamed that his son was the bomber who
detonated one of the cars. He was very disappointed that his son has
died in Somalia," said Warsame. "He was in mourning."
Al-Shabaab, a powerful Islamist group with foreign fighters in its
ranks, claimed responsibility for the last week's attack. This week it
released a video pledging allegiance to al-Qaida and showing foreign
trainers moving among its fighters.
If proven, the case would be the second instance of an American-Somali
suicide bomber in Somaliland and Somalia. Shirwa Ahmed blew himself up
in October 2008 in Somaliland as part of a series of coordinated
explosions that killed 21 people.
Ahmed came from Minneapolis, where law enforcement officials are also
investigating the disappearance of up to 20 Americans from the Somali
community. Two men from the city, Abdifatah Yusuf Isse and Salah Osman
Ahmed, have been charged with aiding terrorists.
Islamic insurgents fighting in Somalia's bloody 18-year-old war have
been recruiting English-speaking Somalis with a series of videos and
recordings on the internet. They are fighting to overthrow the
U.N.-backed government, whose forces currently only hold pockets of the
capital with the help of some 5,000 African Union peacekeepers.
Source: Associated Press
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