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Mogadishu,
September 26, 2009 – The extremist group whose leader was killed by
American Special Forces is now defiantly asking more foreign fighters to
join it.
The killing of Saleh Nabhan and the subsequent appeal by Al Shabaab for
more foreign fighters comes amidst reports that the group is increasing
its population of foreigners.
From neighboring Kenya to distant Australia, Somalis in Diaspora are
implicated in the running conflict in Mogadishu.
Mohamud Hassan, 23, a Somali from the State of Minnesota in the United
States, died on Thursday, September 3, in Mogadishu.
He had been fighting alongside fellow jihadists (holy warriors) in the
war against the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the presence
of peace-keepers sent by the African Union (Amisom) to help the
government in Somalia.
Killed in Mogadishu
According to a report in the Star Tribune in Minnesota by Richard
Meryhew, Hassan was been killed in Mogadishu.
Another Somali who is also from Minnesota reportedly called Hassan’s
family in to inform them of the death. Hassan attended an engineering
school at the University of Minnesota and left North America in November
2008.
“The death has been confirmed by another jihadist from the Minnesota
twin cities of Minneapolis and St Paul,” read a commentary by Somaliweyn
Radio in Mogadishu.
According to reports in Somali media, at least 20 Diaspora Somalis have
left North America to join Islamist groups in Somalia.
In July, the TFG displayed the body of an Al-Shabaab fighter who died
during a heavy confrontation in North Mogadishu. The government
officials said the dead fighter was an unnamed Pakistani while others
said he was Bangladeshi.
Within hours, however, a Somali American mother in Minnesota recognized
the body as that of her son, Jamal Sheikh Bana. She said her son had
disappeared from home several months earlier.
She only realized he had joined Al Shabaab when she saw his body being
displayed and learnt of the young man’s violent death.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation of the US reckons that some
community members are engaged in luring the youth and actually
facilitating the travel process, though the matter remains under
investigations.
The initial conclusions of the FBI have created controversy within the
Somali community in US as Imams were accused of brain-washing the
under-aged and arranging for them to travel.
However, a number of Somali clerics rejected the notion and denied
knowledge of such schemes. Al-Shabaab officials in Somalia have never
denied that Islamic fighters could come to the country to support their
fellow Islamists’ struggle.
Indeed, Sheikh Mukhtar Robow Ali Abu Mansur, Al-Shabaab’s former
spokesman, reiterated that his movement would welcome international
jihadists coming to Somalia.
“Fellow Muslims have the right to come to Somalia to support our cause
to establish an Islamic state and defeat the pro-western politicians,”
said Abu Mansur.
Several reports indicate international jihadists are active in parts of
southern and central Somalia.
In May this year, when clashes between the TFG forces and the Islamist
fighters soared in Mogadishu, many city residents said they had seen
foreign jihadists on some major streets in the Somali capital.
They were reportedly distributing leaflets and CDs with quotes from
Sheikh Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda the radical group
targeted in the fight against terror.
According to his friends, Hassan was popular and had been nicknamed
Maska- Somali for ‘snake.’ So far, the families of five youths say their
relatives have died in the war in Somalia after travelling from North
America.
Subsequent investigations by US authorities have led to the arrest of
three young men. They have been charged with training with or joining
the Islamists fighting the Transitional Federal Government in Somalia.
Raising funds
Other Diaspora Somalis have been charged, at one time or another, in
connection with the Islamist jihad in Somalia. Britain, Sweden and
Yemen, with some said to be involved in raising funds.
Somalia’s neighbors, Ethiopia and Kenya, were particularly vulnerable to
Al-Shabaab’s influence. Both countries have a significant ethnic Somali
population and share a total of a 3,000-kilometre border with Somalia.
Reports have indicated the possibility of cross-border recruitment aided
by porous borders.
Apart from Kenya and Ethiopia, there have been reports of Al-Shabaab
influence in far-away Australia. In August, four men, two of them ethnic
Somalis, were apprehended by security forces in Melbourne, the capital,
and charged with attempts to carry out suicide missions against military
targets in that country.
Indications are that Somalis in Diaspora are also at risk as TFG forces
battle in the homeland to defeat Al-Shabaab.
Source: Daily Nation, Sept 19, 2009
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