Thursday, July 30, 2009

4 men arrested in Belgium on terror link

Boston Herald

Thursday, July 30, 2009

AMSTERDAM — The Dutch national prosecutors office says Belgian authorities have detained four men on suspicion of being members of a terrorist organization after they were expelled from Kenya.

The prosecutors office says the 21-year-old men were arrested on a Dutch warrant after their flight from Nairobi landed in Brussels on Thursday morning.

Three of the men are Dutch and the fourth is Moroccan with Dutch residency.

Kenyan authorities had detained them for unspecified "suspicious activities" after they were found near the border with Somalia.

The prosecutor's office says one of the men was arrested in Azerbaijan in 2005.

Dutch media say all are Muslims who were under observation by Dutch secret service.


Kenya arrests four Dutchmen near Somalia border

By Celestyne Achieng
Wednesday, July 29, 2009


MOMBASA, KENYA (Reuters) - Kenyan police are questioning four Dutch passport-holders who were arrested on suspicion of aiding Somalia's al Shabaab insurgents, a local government official said on Wednesday.
The four men -- three who were born in Morocco and the fourth in Somalia -- were stopped by police on Monday while on their way to Kiunga on the Kenya-Somalia border.

"The al Shabaab group has been receiving humanitarian and technical help from foreigners and we suspect the people we have in custody were in that area to do exactly that," Stephen Ikua, Lamu district commissioner, said.

Al Shabaab insurgents have been battling Somalia's federal transition government since 2007, dashing hopes of a return to stability for the lawless horn of Africa nation.

Kenya, along with the rest of the international community, views the situation there as threatening regional stability and providing a haven for al-Qaeda linked groups.

The four suspects, all aged 21 according to their passports, said they were tourists despite the fact that there are no tourist attractions where they were arrested, Ikua said.

"They had hired a tractor which was taking them to Kiunga, on the Kenya-Somalia border. Their journey is definitely suspect and we believe their activity is connected to the al Shabaab group in Somalia," he said.

Leo Nyongesa, head of police in Coast province, said the four would be moved to Nairobi before the end of this week.


Wednesday, July 29, 2009

When the blood of the martyr is the seed of the church

Church in Somalia grows despite turmoil

Somalia (MNN) ― The country of Somalia is in a dire state. The terrorist group Al Shabaab, linked with al Qaeda, wants to overthrow the government there and become the most extreme version of Islam.

"Politically, it's still just an absolute vacuum. Anything that goes into Somalia, whether it's human aid or relief supplies or some attempt to provoke stability, just seems to get sucked up in chaos. And in today's reality, Christians are bearing the brunt of that," said Carl Moeller, president and CEO of Open Doors USA.

For the church, this has created intense persecution as many of the Christians in the areas, especially those from a Muslim background, take the brunt of this violence.

On July 10, members of al Shabaab beheaded seven Christian men in the town of Baidoa, Somalia. Just ten days later, they also hunted down another Christian and killed him by firing squad.

Sadly, the situation does not look like it will turn itself around in the near future. In fact, Moeller said, "It is the definition of a failed state. It's almost impossible to envision Somalia returning to any sort of national normalcy in the next decade or more."

Unfortunately, it seems al Shabaab and the other extreme groups in the area are the ones making progress. Yet, "At the same time, the church is expanding, and the church, because of the reality of Jesus Christ, is providing a measure of hope for some who are turning from Islam to Christ," Moeller said. He called these two forces in opposition a lethal combination.

Because of this extreme tension, Moeller said it is vital for organizations in the U.S., such as Open Doors, to recognize this strategic area of Africa and the danger of it becoming controlled by extremists. Then, organizations must take action.

The reality of the situation, however, is that persecution is something a person should face if he or she is a Christian, according to Moeller.

"If you follow Jesus, you will be persecuted," he said. And that is just how the Christians in Somalia are responding.

"Most Christians in extreme persecution are not asking to be permanently removed from persecution, to become refugees in some other country; but they are actually asking for the strength and the capacity to stand strong in the midst of that persecution," Moeller said.

Thus, the role of Christians in the U.S. and other free countries around the world should be to support these Christians.

"[We] need to use the freedoms that God has given us to speak out on their behalf, to pray on their behalf," Moeller said. He added that the role of believers in free countries should be to partner with organizations like Open Doors, so the organizations can provide resources and help the persecuted believers stand strong.

Even though the situation looks hopeless, Moeller said there is an upside.

"When the church is growing and the Holy Spirit is moving, the enemy is moving against it," he said. "When persecution comes, it is a sign to us that the church is growing, the church is strengthening, and it is becoming a target of the enemy."

Moeller then challenged free Christians to ask themselves, "What trouble have you been in for Jesus today?" He said if Christians are never getting in trouble, they may not be taking the Gospel seriously.

Do your part by praying fervently for the church in Somalia to continue to grow, strengthen and become encouraged by Christians around the world; standing with them hand-in-hand in prayer and support.

Also, pray for the church in America and other free nations to step up to the task at hand and not become complacent in their freedom.

To partner with Open Doors as they provide resources and encouragement to Christians in Somalia, visit opendoorsusa.org.


Monday, July 20, 2009

Somali rebels say to close down three U.N. agencies

Monday, July 20, 2009

 

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's militant al Shabaab group said on Monday it would shut down three United Nations agencies operating in the Horn of Africa nation as they were working against the establishment of an Islamic state.

 

Al Shabaab controls much of southern Somalia and parts of the capital Mogadishu. The group, which has links to al Qaeda, is fighting government troops and African Union peacekeepers to impose its own harsh version of sharia law throughout Somalia.

 

"As of July 20, 2009, a number of NGOs and foreign agencies currently operating in Somalia will be completely closed down and considered enemies of Islam and Muslims," al Shabaab said.

 

It said the agencies were: UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), UNDSS (United Nations Department of Safety and Security) and UNPOS (United Nations Political Office for Somalia).

 

"The above foreign agencies have been found to be working against the benefits of the Somali Muslim population and against the establishment of an Islamic State in Somalia," said a statement from al Shabaab's department of political affairs and regional administrations.

 

It said other non-governmental organisations and foreign agencies operating in Somalia should contact the administration in their area and they would be informed of the conditions and restrictions on their work. (Reporting by Abdi Sheikh and Ibrahim Mohamed; Editing by David Clarke).


Sunday, July 19, 2009

French agents face sharia trial in Somalia: Islamsts

Saturday, July 18, 2009

 

MOGADISHU — Two French agents held by rebels in Somalia will be tried soon under Islam's Sharia law, an official of the radical Islamic Shebab rebel group told AFP.

 

"The men were caught assisting the apostate government and their spies, so that they will soon be tried and punished under the Sharia law, they will face the justice court for spying and entering Somalia to assist the enemy of Allah," a senior Shebab officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.


"The decision about their fate will depend on the outcome of the Islamic court that will hear the charges against them," he added.


The two agents were snatched at gunpoint from their hotel in central Mogadishu early Tuesday. They are being held by Islamic insurgents battling to overthrow Somalia's transitional government supported by the international community.


On Friday Somalia's Social Affairs minister Mohammed Ali Ibrahim told a French news channel they were being held by the hardline Shebab militia, who may be seeking the freedom of Somali pirates jailed in France.


"We're heading into tortuous bargaining for their freedom, and it could take a while," he warned.


Foreigners are regularly kidnapped in Somalia, which has been mired in civil war since 1991, and usually freed in return for a ransom.


On Saturday, three foreign aid workers were reported kidnapped overnight in a Kenyan town close to the Somali border by armed men, who took them into Somalia, a Somali government official told AFP.


The nationalities of the aid workers and the organisation they worked for were not immediately known.


Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Somali American Muslims Face Terror Charges in the U.S.

Terror Charges For 2 Men In Missing Somalis Case

 

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

 

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -Two men are accused of supporting terrorism in a grand jury indictment unsealed Monday, the first charges in an investigation into the disappearances of several young Somali men who activists believe were recruited from the Minneapolis area by radical elements in Somalia.

At least one of the men, Salah Osman Ahmed, traveled to
Somalia to fight with Islamic militants, according to the indictment returned Feb. 19 but not unsealed until Monday. Ahmed and Abdifatah Yusuf Isse both are charged with providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim and injure. Ahmed also is charged with lying to investigators.

Isse's attorney didn't immediately return a call for comment. The court docket didn't list an attorney for Ahmed, and the federal public defender's office declined to comment.

FBI spokesman E.K. Wilson declined to comment because of the ongoing investigation, which he said was taking significant time and resources.

Both men were in federal custody, according to Omar Jamal, executive director of the
Somali Justice Advocacy Center, who said he had spoken with the men's families. Isse's age was not immediately available, but Jamal said he was younger than Ahmed, who is 26. He did not know if the men knew each other.

Jamal said both of the men went to
Somalia but were able to "escape" and return to Minneapolis. Isse then moved to Seattle, Jamal said, but authorities brought him back to Minneapolis in February and he has been in custody ever since. Family members believe he is cooperating, Jamal said.

It was not immediately clear when Ahmed was arrested.

In Minneapolis, home to the nation's largest concentration of Somali immigrants, as many as 20 young men are believed to have gone in the last 18 months to take part in the fighting in Somalia. Family members say at least three young men from
Minneapolis have died in Somalia.

Shirwa Ahmed committed a suicide bombing in October, officials said. The family of Burhan Hassan, 18, learned last month that he was killed. Family members Jamal Bana, 20, said during the weekend that they found a picture of their son's body online.

Jamal said the two indicted men may actually be the lucky ones and family members are working to bring home others who still are alive.

The first two broad counts in the indictment cover alleged activity from September 2007 through December 2008.

Ahmed and Isse are accused of providing "material support, namely personnel including themselves" as part of a conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure "persons in a foreign country."

Ahmed is accused of taking a Northwest Airlines flight from
Minneapolis to Amsterdam on Dec. 6, 2007, bound for Somalia, then lying about it when questioned by investigators in July and December 2008.

"He stated that he did not know anyone on his flight to
Somalia in December 2007 when, in fact, he traveled to Somalia together with an individual he knew, so that they could fight jihad in Somalia," the indictment alleges.

Jamal said family members believe Isse and Salah Ahmed were "foot soldiers" and not involved in any planning or recruiting.

-------

Twenty-year-old Jamal Bana was killed east of
Mogadishu in what his family calls a clash between Somali troops and insurgents. 

Bana was one of several Somali-Americans who disappeared from the Twin Cities last fall. It is the third Somali-American family from
Minneapolis to have a family member die in Somalia recently.


Monday, July 13, 2009

Somali American Islamist Killed in Somalia

Jamal Bana, Somali American Islamist
Photo by Hiiraan.com

Minneapolis Somali man killed in homeland  

The family of Jamal Bana discovered a photo of his body on a website. He was shot in the head. Others also may have died.

StarTribune.com
Minneapolis . St Paul, Minnesota

By RICHARD MERYHEW and ALLIE SHAH, Star Tribune staff writers 
Saturday, July 11, 2009

A third Minneapolis Somali man has been killed in his homeland, community leaders said Saturday, his family having learned his fate by stumbling onto a website that contained photos of his bloody corpse.

While the body was identified only as that of a "foreign jihadist" or "fighter," a closeup of the face left Jamal Bana's mother with no doubt. The young man had been shot through the temple.


FBI officials said Saturday they could not confirm the news.


Abdirizak Bihi, a community activist who visited with Bana's mother at her south Minneapolis home Saturday, said that Bana's family learned of his death early Saturday while searching the web for news on the fighting in Mogadishu.


"They kept scanning the website for Somali news and there it was," he said. "What made it worse is that the mom saw the dead body."


The circumstances of Bana's death are unclear.


Bana, 20, was a former student at Minneapolis Community and Technical College who also worked part-time as a security guard. He was among a group of up to 20 young men from the Twin Cities who abruptly left their homes last summer and fall to return to their native country.

Federal authorities have been investigating the possible connection between terrorist groups and the disappearances since last fall, when Shirwa Ahmed, 26, of Minneapolis, apparently blew himself up in Somalia in a coordinated attack that killed up to 30 people.


A second youth, Burhan Hassan, who was a senior at Roosevelt High School when he left home Nov. 4 and who is Bihi's nephew, was killed in Somalia last month. Like Bana, he was shot in the head.


Bihi said Bana's body was placed on a stretcher in the presidential palace in Mogadishu. He said Bana was initially identified as a "foreign jihadist" from Bangladesh, and then later, from Afghanistan.


He said the family has heard that Jamal may have been killed in the fighting that has overwhelmed Mogadishu, but also may have been shot after having been taken captive.


Bihi said Saturday that there are rumors that "three or four" others who returned to Somalia may also have been killed, including a Minneapolis man believed to be one of the first to leave Minnesota for Somalia. The man also is believed to have been a primary recruiter of other young Twin Cities Somali men, according to a local Somali source. Late Saturday Bihi said the family of 30-year-old Zakaria Maruf indicated they had received word that Maruf was dead.


Bihi described Bana as a bright, sensitive man who helped his mother care for several siblings who are disabled and his bed-ridden father. "His family depended on him. He was the guy who took care of his siblings."


A source close to the family, who asked not to be identified, said that Bana was outgoing and loved playing basketball, working on cars and hanging out at the mall.

But prior to leaving for Somalia, "almost overnight, his personality changed," he said.


A friend of Shirwa Ahmed's who also knew Bana but who asked not to be identified, said Bana became "very fascinated with the religion."


The source said he spoke with one of Bana's relatives recently and was told that Bana had called home not long ago and said in a hushed tone that he had been tricked into returning. He said he thought he was going to "get an education and learn about religion," the source said. Bana told the relative, "they fooled us."


Bihi said that the young men who left the Twin Cities for their homeland had "no clue about Somali tradition, the Somali clan issues. They have no clue what Somalia is."


He said the Twin Cities Somali community, the largest in the United States, anxiously awaits the outcome of the federal investigation.


"We are very confident about the investigation, and we are very confident about the process," Bihi said. "But we want to see justice. ... We are all anxious to get this all behind us."


Staff writer James Walsh contributed to this report. richm@startribune.com • 612-673-4425ashah@startribune.com • 612-673-4488


Friday, July 10, 2009

Somali Islamist insurgents behead 7 people

Friday, July 10, 2009
 
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somali Islamist insurgent fighters beheaded seven people accused of abandoning their religion and of espionage, residents said Friday, in the largest mass execution since the Islamists were chased from power two and a half years ago.
The execution follows weeks of bloody fighting for control of the capital and at a time of mounting concern over the influx of hundreds of extremist foreign fighters into the war-ravaged Horn of Africa nation.
 
Resident Madey Doyow said he saw seven headless bodies in a truck being guarded by militia members in the southwestern town of Baidoa.
 
"The people who were guarding the vehicle told us they were beheaded for violating Islamic law," he said. The victims had come from different parts of the southwestern Bay and Bakool regions, he said.
 
A woman named Miriam, who asked that her last name be withheld to protect her from reprisals, sobbed as she said in a phone call that four bodies, including her husband's, had been brought to the police station in Baidoa. The location of the other three was unclear.
 
She called the killing of her husband inhuman.
 
Hawa, a woman who also wanted her full name withheld, was at the police station in Baidoa along with other families who had been informed a relative was executed. She told the AP that her brother had been missing for about 20 days after being abducted from his house by masked men, and that she had just been informed that he had been beheaded.
Al-Shabab militia officials told her that the seven had been accused of either renouncing the Islamic religion or spying for the transitional government, she said.
 
The executions fit a broader pattern of torture and unlawful killings by various factions of the militia, said Benedicte Goderiaux, a Somalia researcher for Amnesty International.
In Kismayo, a southern port city under al-Shabab control, a 13-year-old girl was stoned to death last October after being accused of adultery and a man also had a hand amputated after being accused of theft.
 
Last month the militia amputated a hand and foot each from four men accused of theft in the capital of Mogadishu. Another man accused of rape and murder was stoned to death in a town south of the capital last month.
 
"It's difficult to know if the unlawful killings and torture is increasing or it's the reports that are increasing," said Goderiaux.
 
"It's definitely linked to al-Shabab wanting to show or portray themselves as restoring law and order in the region they control ... it's also linked to them wanting to terrorize the population under their control under the guise of applying sharia law,"
 
The killings come as African Union officials are deliberating over broadening the mandate of an under-resourced and undermanned peacekeeping mission in the country's capital, and as the U.N. human rights chief said both the insurgents and government troops may be committing war crimes.
 
Somalia has been a failed state for the last 18 years. The current U.N.-backed government, supported by 4,300 AU peacekeepers, is struggling to maintain its control of a few blocks of the capital. The Islamic insurgency, which seized much of the south and the capital for six months in 2006 before being driven from power, has been strengthened in recent months by an influx of weapons and fighters from other countries.
 
Associated Press Writer Katharine Houreld in Nairobi, Kenya contributed to this report.

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Pirates 'smuggling al-Qaeda fighters' into Somalia

Somali Islamists bent on turning their land into an international haven for Al Qaeda are using pirate gangs to offer foreign militants safe passage into the country, The Sunday Telegraph has been told.

By Colin Freeman
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Telegraph.co.uk

The Taliban-style Shabab group , which has already siezed control of much of the lawless nation, has enlisted the pirates' services to smuggle in al-Qaeda fighters from across the Middle East, according to Somali government ministers. They claim that up to 1,000 have arrived in recent months, swelling the ranks of the Shabab in its bid to topple the fragile US-backed administration in Mogadishu.

The warning was issued by Somali's first deputy prime minister, Professor Abdulrahman Adan Ibrahim, during a visit to London last week. He is lobbying for Britain and other Western countries to give more financial help to stamp out the piracy problem along the country's vast 2,000 mile coastline.

The Shabab are requesting the pirates to bring people in for them," Prof Ibrahim told The Sunday Telegraph. "Somalia's borders with neighbouring countries are now tightly policed, so the only corridor for them is via the sea. The pirates smuggle them, and if anybody stops them, they just say they are passing fishermen."

Prof Ibrahim's visit came as Mogadishu witnessed some of its fiercest fighting in recent months, with around 20 people killed in clashes between government forces and the Shabab, which already controls parts of the capital. Residents spoke of corpses lying in the streets, including those of young children killed in the crossfire. Some were buried without being identified. "The streets were horrific," said Ali Muse, an ambulance service official. "We've transported 20 dead bodies and 55 injured in the latest fighting."

Until now, no clear evidence has emerged of co-operation between the Shabab and the pirates, despite widespread fears that some of the pirates' multi-million dollar ransom payments might be channeled to them. Last November, the guerilla movement declared buccaneering to be "un-Islamic", and threatened to attack a pirate gang that hijacked the Sirius Star, the $100 million Saudi oil tanker that was the pirates' biggest catch last year. Some believe, though, that this was simply a posture to ensure that pirate gangs paid the Shabab bribes to turn a blind eye, a theory backed by Prof Ibrahim.

"We are not saying that the Shabab is actually sending out their own people to do pirate operations," he said. "But we think they share some mutual interests with the pirates. The pirate gangs are bribing the Shabab not to attack them, and the Shabab are getting the pirates to bring in fighters."

Prof Ibrahim is now attempting to persuade the British government and others to provide funding to train a new, 1,000 strong version of the defunct Somali navy. The navy's commander-in-chief, Farah Ahmed Omar, has no boats at present, and has not put to sea in 23 years. But the government argues that building up a local force - backed by land units - will be a more effective long-term solution against the pirates than the international naval fleet offshore.

The picture painted by Prof Ibrahim of terrorists hitching rides in pirate skiffs across the Gulf of Aden is not universally accepted. Somali politicians have been accused of exaggerating the threat from al-Qaeda in the past, knowing that it wins the attention of Western governments in a way that clan feuding does not.

Roger Middleton, the world expert on piracy at London's Chatham House thinktank, said: "There are lots of people engaged in all kinds of gun running, people smuggling and other illicit activies in the Gulf of Aden. It is therefore not clear why the Shabab would specifically need pirate help to smuggle al-Qaeda fighters in."

However, many people do view Somalia as a potential new al-Qaeda bolthole. Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned recently that President Barack Obama's operations to squeeze the movement in both Afghanistan and Pakistan could see its fighters relocate to the Horn of Africa region. Already there are believed to be at least 500 fighters holed up in remote mountainous regions of Yemen, where they have been blamed for a spate of recent kidnappings and carbombings. Yemen lies just 200 miles across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia and is well within reach of pirate crews, who generally have little trouble evading foreign anti-piracy patrols .

"I am very worried about growing safe havens in both Somalia and Yemen, specifically because we have seen al-Qaeda leadership start to flow to Yemen," Adml Mullen told the US Brookings Institution in mid-May.

Last month, Mr Obama authorised nearly $10 million worth of arms and military training to help the Somali government quash the Shabab. Critics fear the US-donated weapons may end up falling into insurgent hands.

While most US estimates put the number of foreign fighters in Somalia at around 400, Prof Ibrahim said Somali government estimates put the figure at around 1,000. "We have seen people from Afghanistan, Pakistan and some other African countries like Kenya and the Comoros Islands," he said.

The Shabab was initially allied with the Islamic Courts Union, a relatively moderate Islamic movement which won some popularity in Mogadishu three years ago when it briefly imposed a degree of law and order on a city that plagued for years by warlords. It was seen as more effective than the Western-backed Transitional Federal Government, whose members had not even been able to sit in the capital because of security fears.

But when Ethiopian troops ousted the Islamic Courts Union in early 2007 and re-installed the TFG, the Shabab began a fierce insurgency, which has since returned the capital and much of the rest of the country to a warzone.

In Shabab-controlled regions, brutal intepretations of Sharia law are in place. In the southern town of Kismayo last autumn, a 13-year-old girl was stoned to death on trumped-up charges of adultery. And in Mogadishu last week, four men convicted of stealing mobile phones and guns were punished by having a hand and foot cut off each. A traditional curved sword was used to carry out the sentence in front of hundreds of onlookers.

Friday, July 03, 2009

Pakistani Islamists Fighting in Somalia

'Fighter influx' for Somali group

Friday, July 03, 2009

An Islamist commander in Somalia has told the BBC there has been an influx of fighters from overseas joining their battle against the interim government.

The al-Shabab militant leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said several hundred foreigners had joined their militia, many from Pakistan.

Meanwhile, at least 25 people have been killed in fighting in the capital, Mogadishu, over the past two days.

Africa Union leaders meeting in Libya are due to discuss Somalia later.

There have been calls for the AU to boost its force of some 4,000 peacekeepers based in Mogadishu.

The BBC's Andrew Harding, in Buale in the south, says an al-Shabab commander confirmed foreign fighters were among his ranks.

The radical al-Shabab Islamists, who are accused of links to al-Qaeda, already control much of the south of the country.

Militant alliance

Earlier this week government forces displayed what they said were the bodies of some al-Shabab foreign fighters.

But the insurgents denied that any foreigners had been killed.

Fierce fighting on Wednesday and Thursday between government forces and militants around Mogadishu left 25 people dead.

The fighting started late Wednesday and continued into Thursday in residential areas north of the city, witnesses told the BBC

Each side blamed the other for starting the violence.

"We have been attacked and we are defending ourselves and our legal government," said military spokesman Farhan Asanyo on Thursday.

Muse Abdi Arale, of the Hisbul Islam group which fights alongside al-Shabab, said government soldiers attacked them and in response they pushed them back and have taken new areas.

Since 7 May, an alliance of militant Islamist hardliners has been locked in ferocious battles with pro-government forces in Mogadishu.

More than 165,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.

Thursday, July 02, 2009

Somali-Americans Accused of Al Qaeda Ties Indicted on Terror Charges, Sources Say

A federal grand jury has indicted a group of Somali-Americans on terror-related charges after more than 20 young men from the Minneapolis area were recruited to join an Al Qaeda-linked group in Somalia, according to two law enforcement sources.

By Mike Levine, FOX News
Wednesday, July 02, 2009

The indictments have yet to be unsealed, but an announcement is expected in the next few weeks. One law enforcement source told FOX News the grand jury already has handed up indictments against at least three people.

Among those charged is a man from Minneapolis who went to war-torn Somalia and then, about four months ago, relocated to Seattle, according to the two sources and a leader in the Minneapolis Somali community. The man was then arrested in a Seattle airport and transferred to a jail in Minneapolis, where he is currently being detained, according to the law enforcement sources.

The law enforcement sources said the man, described as in his 20s, has been charged with providing material support to a terrorist group, in this case al-Shabaab, which has been warring with the moderate Somali government since 2006.

Omar Jamal, the executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, Minn., identified the man as 21-year-old Abdifatah Ise. FOX News was unable to independently confirm that. Jamal said the man's family contacted him for "assistance" after the arrest, but he had been unable to speak publicly about it until now "in the interest of" a federal investigation.

For much of the past year the FBI has been looking into how dozens of young, Somali-American men were recruited to train and possibly fight alongside al-Shabaab in anarchy-stricken Somalia. The investigation has centered around Minneapolis, where a grand jury has been hearing testimony from witnesses for several months, but the investigation has also been active in Seattle; Columbus, Ohio; Cincinnati; Boston; and San Diego.

A source told FOX News in March that "several" recruits had returned to the United States, but counterterrorism officials have repeatedly said there is no intelligence indicating that any such recruits are planning attacks within the country.

"[Their] primary focus obviously is not on the homeland, it's abroad," Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said during a briefing with reporters last week. "But any time you have people who are being trained in terrorist-type activities, that's something that needs to be monitored."

Jamal said indictments in the case are a positive step.

"To us that means the investigation is almost over and someone will be held accountable for those missing people," he said. "What we have is human trafficking. Those Somali boys were being trafficked for a war."

According to Osman Ahmed, whose 17-year-old nephew was one of those to go to Somalia late last year, at least a dozen people have testified before the Minneapolis grand jury in the past few weeks alone, including officials from the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in St. Paul.

One law enforcement source said that shows "major progress" in the investigation, since the Abubakar mosque has been a focal point for investigators from the beginning.

Many of the men recruited to join al-Shabaab attended the Abubakar mosque, and several mosque officials, including director Farhan Hurre, could face indictment, one source said.

In addition, a youth volunteer at the mosque, Abia Ali, recently testified before the grand jury, and she is now worried that she could face indictment, according to Ahmed, who said he talked to someone close to Ali. Ahmed said he was told that Ali had been planning to visit family in Africa sometime in the next few weeks, but after testifying to the grand jury authorities told her not to leave the country.

In a recent interview with Minnesota Public Radio, Ali acknowledged that she felt like a target of the FBI investigation, but she denied any involvement in recruiting Somali-Americans to join the fight in Somalia.

"It's very sad," she told Minnesota Public Radio. "It's hurting me so much. I'll be the last person on earth encouraging violence. I'm against violence."

In fact, she said, she tried to prevent two boys from going to Somalia after realizing what they were up to.

Efforts by phone and e-mail to reach Ali were unsuccessful. Similarly, Hurre did not return repeated phone and e-mail messages. But in a statement posted online in March, the Abubakar mosque said suggestions it had any role in the recruitment were "unfair" and untrue.

"Abubakar Center didn't recruit, finance, or otherwise facilitate in any way, shape, or form the travel of those youth," the statement said.

Ahmed and others have long insisted otherwise.

"Like his peers, [my nephew] was never interested in Somali politics," Ahmed said during a Senate hearing on the issue in March. "These kids have no perception of Somalia except the one that was formed in their mind by their teachers at the Abubakar Center. We believe that these children did not travel to Somalia by themselves. There must be others who made them understand that going to Somalia and participating the fighting is the right thing to do."

Not all of those who went to Somalia have returned to the United States. Some are still fighting alongside al-Shabaab, and others have died there.

Ahmed's nephew, Burhan Hassan, was killed in Mogadishu four weeks ago. It's unclear exactly how he died. Ahmed suggested his nephew was killed by members of al-Shabaab. Law enforcement officials said Hassan was likely killed by artillery fire or a stray bullet.

Eight months earlier, in October 2008, 27-year-old college student Shirwa Ahmed of Minneapolis became "the first known American suicide bomber" when he blew himself up in Somalia, killing dozens, according to the FBI.

E.K. Wilson, a spokesman with the FBI Field Office in Minneapolis, declined to comment about the case or any indictments. Officials with FBI headquarters and the Justice Department in Washington also declined to comment.

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Al Shabab Beheads Two Christian Boys in Somalia

SOMALIA: ISLAMISTS BEHEAD TWO SONS OF CHRISTIAN LEADER

Father refuses to give al Shabaab extremists information about house church pastor.

NAIROBI, Kenya, July 1 (Compass Direct News) – Islamic extremists have beheaded two young boys in Somalia because their Christian father refused to divulge information about a church leader, and the killers are searching Kenya’s refugee camps to do the same to the boys’ father.

Before taking his Somali family to a Kenyan refugee camp in April, 55-year-old Musa Mohammed Yusuf himself was the leader of an underground church in Yonday village, 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Kismayo in Somalia. He had received instruction in the Christian faith from Salat Mberwa.

Militants from the Islamic extremist group al Shabaab entered Yonday village on Feb. 20, went to Yusuf’s house and interrogated him on his relationship with Mberwa, leader of a fellowship of 66 Somali Christians who meet at his home at an undisclosed city. Yusuf told them he knew nothing of Mberwa and had no connection with him. The Islamic extremists left but said they would return the next day.

“Immediately when they left, I decided to flee my house for Kismayo, for I knew for sure they were determined to come back,” Yusuf said.

At noon the next day, as his wife was making lunch for their children in Yonday, the al Shabaab militants showed up. Batula Ali Arbow, Yusuf’s wife, recalled that their youngest son, Innocent, told the group that their father had left the house the previous day.

The Islamic extremists ordered her to stop what she was doing and took hold of three of her sons – 11-year-old Abdi Rahaman Musa Yusuf, 12-year-old Hussein Musa Yusuf and Abdulahi Musa Yusuf, 7. Some neighbors came and pleaded with the militants not to harm the three boys. Their pleas landed on deaf ears.

“I watched my three boys dragged away helplessly as my youngest boy was crying,” Arbow said. “I knew they were going to be slaughtered. Just after some few minutes I heard a wailing cry from Abdulahi running towards the house. I could not hold my breath. I only woke up with all my clothes wet. I knew I had fainted due to the shock.”

With the help of neighbors, Arbow said, she buried the bodies of her two children the following day.

In Kismayo, Yusuf received the news that two of his sons had been killed and that the Islamic militants were looking for him, and he left on foot for Mberwa’s home. It took him a month and three days to reach him, and the Christian fellowship there raised travel funds for him to reach a refugee camp in Kenya.

Later that month his family met up with him at the refugee camp.When the family fled Somalia, they were compelled to leave their 80-year-old grandmother behind and her whereabouts are unknown. Since arriving at the Kenyan refugee camp, the family still has no shelter, though fellow Christians are erecting one for them. Yusuf’s family lives each day without shoes, a mattress or shelter.

But Arbow said she has no wish to return.

“I do not want to go back to Somalia – I don’t want to see the graves of my children,” she said amid sobs.

Mberwa said that Arbow is often deep in thought, at times in a disturbingly otherworldly way.

Border Tensions

Western security services see the al Shabaab ranks, reportedly filled with foreign jihadists, as a proxy for the Islamic extremist al-Qaeda group in Somalia. If the plight of Christians in Somalia is horrific – some are slaughtered, others scarred from beatings – the situation of Somali Christians in refugee camps is fast becoming worse than a matter of open discrimination.

“We have nowhere to run to,” Mberwa told Compass. “The al Shabaab are on our heads, while our Muslim brothers are also discriminating against us. Indeed even here in the refugee camp we are not safe. We need a safe haven elsewhere.”

He said that in April three al Shabaab militants were arrested by Kenyan security agents at Ifo refugee camp in Dadaab and taken to Garissa, Kenya’s North Eastern Province headquarters. But local provincial administrators denied any knowledge of such arrests.

“I don’t know” is all Dadaab District Officer Evans Kyule could say when asked about the arrests.

In Naivasha, Kenya, 19 Somali extremists were arrested last month and are scheduled to appear in a Nairobi court tomorrow, according to Kenyan television network.

Al-Shabaab militants have waged a vicious war against the fragile government of Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. In a show of power in the capital city stronghold of Mogadishu, last week hard-line Islamic insurgents sentenced four young men each to amputation of a hand and a foot as punishment for robbery.

After mosques announced when the amputations would take place, the extremists carried them out by machete in front of about 300 people on Thursday (June 25) at a military camp. It was the first such double amputation in Mogadishu by the rebels, who follow strict sharia (Islamic law) in the parts of south Somalia that they control.

The rebel militants’ strict practices have shocked many Somalis, who are traditionally moderate Muslims, though residents give the insurgents credit for restoring order to regions they control.

Al Shabaab militants are battling Ahmed’s government for control of Mogadishu while fighting government-allied, moderate Islamist militia in the provinces. In the last 18 years of violence in Somalia, a two-and-a-half year Islamist insurgency has killed more than 18,000 civilians, uprooted 1 million people, allowed piracy to flourish offshore, and spread security fears round the region.

Somalia’s government, which controls little more than a few blocks of Mogadishu, has declared a state of emergency and appealed for foreign intervention, including help from Somalia’s neighbors. Kenya recently has stepped up patrols along her common border with Somalia, vowing to respond militarily should militants make any incursions. At the same time, al Shabaab militants have warned that they would invade Kenya should the military patrols persist.

Nearly Losing a Son

On Oct. 7, 2008, al shabaab militia attacked the 28-year-old son of Mberwa in Sinai village, on the outskirts of Mogadishu. They interrogated Mberwa Abdi about the whereabouts of his father, maintaining that they had information that incriminated him as the leader of a Christian group.

Abdi denied having any knowledge of his father’s faith, and the Islamist extremists took Abdi out of the village and threatened to kill him. Covering his eyes and tying his hands behind him as he knelt down, they began beating his back with a gun. Abdi remained silent. The militants fired at his left side near the shoulder, and when Abdi fell they left him for dead.

On hearing the sound of the gunshot, neighbors ran to the scene and found Abdi still alive. They rushed him to Keysany Hospital in Mogadishu, where he underwent surgery.

Salat Mberwa received information from neighbors that his son had been killed on Nov. 1, 2008 by al Shabaab extremists, and that his body was in Keysany Hospital. Later he heard that his son was in a coma and sent 2,500 Kenyan shillings (US$35) for medical care. He also arranged for his wife and two youngest children to flee, knowing that they were the next target. They reached a refugee camp in Kenya in mid-December of last year.

After a month, Abdi was discharged from the hospital and arrived in the same refugee camp on Jan. 8. Medicins San Frontiers provided medicine for the ailing Abdi. Abdi bears the scars of bullet wounds on his body, and he still looks ill.

Asked why he denied his father’s Christian faith, Abdi said Christians are hunted like wild beasts.

“Everybody is afraid of this militia group and always tries to play things safe,” he said. “There is urgent need to help Christians in Somalia to get out as soon as possible, before they are wiped out.”

Salat Mberwa said he is concerned about the way Christians are being mistreated in the refugee camp.

“The Muslims cannot come to our aid in case one of us gets into a problem,” he said. “They always tell us, ‘You are Christians and we cannot help you. Let your religion help you.’”

While thankful for aid from Christian groups in Nairobi, Mberwa lamented that aid agencies and denominational associations have not employed Christian refugees in the camp, though many are qualified as drivers, electricians, carpenters and educators.

Wajiyada Argagixisada Al-Qaacida ee Soomaaliya


Dambiile Muuse Carraale, Afhayeenka - Dambiile Xasan Daahir Aweys, Madaxa Xisbul Xisbul Islaam oo soo dhaweeyey Islaam xasuuqa reer Beledweyne.
Waxaa sidoo kale weeraro ismaadiin ah lugu qaaday Muqdishu, Baydhabo, Boosaaso, iyo Hargeisa.

Su’aal: maxey tahay ujeedada ka dambeysaa falalkan waxshinimada ah ee lagu cuuryaaminayo shacabka Soomaaliyeed?

Waxaan wada ogsoonahay in Argagixisada Alqaacida falalkan oo kale ka fulisay Afgaanistaan, Ciraaq, Algeria, Morocco, Yemen, Masar, Yurub, iyo USA. Kolkii Alqaacida looga adkaaday Afgaanistaan, Pakistaan iyo Ciraaq bey Soomaliya u soo dhuumatay si ay caqiidooda sumeysan ugu faafiyaan Soomalida, ka dibna saldhig ka dhigtaan oo ay ka abaabulaan falal argagixiso. Waxaa ayaan darro ah in dad sheeganaya Islaam oo Soomaali ah la maandooriyey, kuwaas oo ay horseed u yihiin ururada Alshabaab iyo Xizbul Islaam.

Xaqiiqadu waxey tahay in falalkan marnaba waafaqsaneyn Islaanimada iyo bani’aadanimada. Alshabaab iyo Xisbul Isalaam ujeedadooda waxey tahay in ay baabi’yaan muslimiinta Soomaaliyeed iyagoo ku soo dhuumanayo diinta Islaamka. Waxey ku amdacoodaan in ay yihiin mujaahidiin, haddana marka dagaal fool ka fool ah leyskaga horyimaado baqo dhabarka ah jeediyaan. Waxay sabab u ahaayeen soo gelintaanka ciidamada Itoobiyaanka, ka dib markey ku dhawaaqeen in ay jihaad ku qaadayaan Itoobiya.

Waana la ogyayahay baqadii ay dhigeen. Waxey ku wanaagsanyihiin ciqaabta shacabka dhibaateysan sida gacmo iyo lugo la jaro, qubuuro laga faago, haweenka oo loo diido in ay gadiidka raacaan, masaajidda oo marka salaadda laga soo baxo dadka lagu hortoogto, iwm. Intooda badan xataa looma akhrin kitaabka la yiraahdo “safiinatul Salaat”, aqoon kalena iskaba daa. Waana sababta ugu wacan in dambiilayaal ka soo cararay Afghanistan iyo Pakistan adeegsadaan shayaatiinta sheeganaya xasuuqa dad rayid ah sida Cali Dheeere iyo Xasan Yacquub.

Dhibaatada gaartay reer Beledweyne, horayna uga dhacday Hargeisa, Boosaaso, Kismayo, iyo Muqdishu waa mid marnaba ummadda Soomaaliyeed aaney illobi Karin, waayo ummadda marnaba ma oggolaaneyso in ay gun u noqoto kooxo argagixiso ah oo u adeegayo kooxo ajnabi ah oo dhulkoodii soo gubay. Mana aha markii ugu horreysay oo ay fidno sidan oo kale ka dhacdo dunida Islaamka. Waxaan wada ogsoonahay ninkii dilay Saxaabigii jaliilka ahaa, ahaana khaliifkii afaraad ee muslimiinta, Cali Bin Taleb (Ilaah ha ka raalli noqdee) uu ahaa Cabdiraxmaan Bin Muljam. Gacan ku dhiiglahan ayaa ka mid ahaa nimankii la oran jiray Khawaarij oo astaamaha lagu yaqaan ay ka mid tahay mitidnimo, iyo qof muslim ah oo la gaaleeyo ka dibna la dilo.

Waxaa ummadda Soomaaliyeed waajib ku ah in ay meel uga soo wada jeestaan khatarta ka soo socota ururadan xaaraanta ah oo ay adeegsanayaan argagixisada caalamiga ah oo runtii khatar weyn ku haya diinta iyo jiritaanka ummadda Soomaaliyeed. Waxey banneysteen in dhiigga muslimiinta la daadiyo, ummaddana lagu rido argagax, ka dibna la adoonsado. Waxey banneysteen in ay la dagaalamaan dowlad iyo shacab muslim ah oo diyaar u ah in shareecada Islaamka la dhaqan geliyo. Waxey diideen taladii iyo wacdigii ay soo jeediyeen culamada Soomaaliyeed iyo culamada caalamka oo ugu baaqay in aysan la dagaalamin xukuumadda Shiikh Shariif. Wax haba yaraatee waan waan ah oo ay u diyaar u yihiin ma jirto. Cid ay wax ka maqlayaan ma jirto aan ka ahayn ninka duubka weyn (Usaama Bin Laden) ee ku dhuumanaya buuraha Tora Bora ee Afghanistan oo ummadda muslimiinta baday hoog badan.

Ilaahey iyo Rasuulkiisaba waxey na fareen in aan ka hortagno kooxanhan oo kale isku bahaystay in ay dhibaateeyaan muslimiinta aan waxba galabsan. Qof kasta oo Soomali ah waa ku waajib ah inuu ka qeybqaato ka hortagga Alshabaab (Alshayaatiin) iyo xisbul Islam (xisbul Kharaab), haddii kale shacab iyo dal midna la arki maayo. Waxaa waajib ah in la soo qabqabto, ka dibna la horkeeno maxkamad sharci ah oo lagu soo oogo dambiyada ay ka galeen shacabka Soomaaliyeed. Ma aha inaan oggolaano in Soomaliya noqoto guri argagixiso.

Axad, Juun 28, 2009 dhacday B/Weyne bishan Juun, 18keedii waxey sababtay xasuuq dad badan oo rayid ah iyo howlwadeeno sare oo ka tirsan dowladda midnimo qaran uu ka madax ka yahay Shiikh Shariif Shiikh Axmed. Masuuliyiinta sare ee dowladda ee geeriyooday waxaa ka mid ahaa Cumar Xaashi Aadan, Wasiirkii Amniga Qaranka, iyo Safiir Cabdulkariim Faarax Laqanyho (Allaha u naxariisto). Waxaa falkaas xasuuqa sheegtay UrurkaUrurka Alshabaab oo xiriir la leh Ururka Alqaacida oo adduunka laga xarimay falal argagixiso awgeed.


Afhayeenka Alshabaab, Cali Dheere, ayaa si cad u qirtay in ururkooda ka masuula ahaa xasuuqa ka dhacay Beledweyne oo ay ku dhinteen ku dhawaad 40 qof, kuna dhaawacmeen dad gaaraya 50 qof. Waxaa kale oo ku dhintay qaraxan saraakiil, oday dhaqameeydyo badan, haween, iyo caruur.

Dambiile – Mukhtaar Roobow oo horay u qirtay dilkii macallimiinta – Hiiraan Education Project B/Weyne, 2008.

Waxaa sidoo kale isna ammaanay falkan fulaynimada iyo naxariis darrada ah wakiilka Xisbul Islaam, Muuse Carraale, oo ku tilmaamay xasuuqa fal geesinimo leh, xisbigiisuna maqsuud ka yahay dhibaatada loo geystay reer shacabka reer Beledweyne. Khasaaraha maadiga ah ee gaaray hoteelka iyo agagaarkiisa waxaa lagu qiyaasi karaa boqollaal kun oo dollar.



Dambiile Cali Maxamuud Raage - Al Madina Hoteel- xasuuq naxariis darro ah
(Cali dheere): “waxaan ku faraxsanahay howlaha ismiidaaminta ee laga fuliyey Hoteel Al Madina, Beledweyne, waana aan sii wadeynaa haddii…..


Wa billaahi Towfiiq
A/kadir K Dirie
Email: a.k.dirie@gmail.com

Qore: C/qaadir K. Dirie
Axad, Juun 28, 2009

Amin Amir's Description of Somali Islamists








Source: www.aminarts.com

Profile of a Somali suicide bomber...!!


Civilians killed by suicide bomber
Mogadishu, 24\01\09

by Muuse Yuusuf
Saturday, June 27, 2009

A young man of 17 years old blew himself up in a suicide car bomb attack at a hotel in Beletweyne, central Somalia, killing at least 20 Somali Muslims, including senior officials from the Somali government. This is not the first time young Somalis have committed acts of violence. There were up to 10 suicide car bombing incidents[i]-although some might have been carried out by foreigners; the first being in Baidao when a suicide bomber failed to assassinate Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf, former president of TFG; other acts have targeted Ethiopian, AMISOM troops, and Somali citizens such as those suicide car bomb attacks in Hargeisa and in Bosaaso.

This phenomenon of suicide car bombs by young Somalis has instilled fear, anxiety, panic and terror in the hearts of many ordinary Somalis, who are now left confused and bewildered. They thought suicide bombing was a social phenomenon in Middle East and Asia, and therefore cannot understand how this could have happened in their country. They ask themselves questions such as: what was going on in the minds of those young lads who killed themselves? What made them commit such acts of violence? Is suicide bombing part of Somali culture/tradition? Even some of the relatives of the victims might have died of heart attack because of shock and disbelief of what had happened to their relatives.

To answer some of those questions, let us try to build or sketch a profile of Somali suicide bombers in terms of age, education, childhood upbringing and their families, in order to help us understand what made them kill themselves, and also, let us explore the different types of profiles that those young lads may fit in.

Profile one: is a teenager of 10-17 year old, which means he was born and brought up during civil war years. He finished his Quranic school studies but has never received formal education. He is an orphan, or from a broken and not well educated family. It is very likely his father is illiterate and lives in the countryside. The boy managed to move to a city. While in the city, he was once a street boy and a rough sleeper. In his city life, all he knows is death, destruction, pillage, rape, and lack of education. Also, he was once a child soldier, and worked for and was used by a warlord. The boy witnessed people being killed; he himself might be a murderer.

This unhappy and unlucky young chap ended up meeting a family that was prepared to adopt to help him out. The head of the family is a cleric, a man who is quite involved with armed religious extremist groups in Somalia such as Al-shabaab. He is into political Islam and all that comes with it. Immediately, the boy was invited to join the family; and just in a short period of time he was treated and trusted as a member of the family. He was enrolled in madrasa religious school which teaches basic Islamic education mainly faith-related issues. His young mind was indoctrinated with extreme Jihadist ideology, something that even grown ups with knowledge, intellect and training find very hard to understand or comprehend it. To put it simply, the boy was groomed to be a suicide bomber. He blew him up in a town in Somalia, killing 20 odd Somali Muslims.

Profile two: is a young man of 17-25 year old. He was born in Somalia during the civil war. Similar to the first profile, he himself witnessed killings, pillage, rape and destruction, which was very painful experience, something that a child’s mind cannot comprehend, and should not have been exposed to. He did not have a happy childhood in Somalia. However, this sad young man was lucky to have been grated political asylum to join his mother in a western country. His father was killed in the civil war. With all her good intentions, his mother enrolled him in formal schools up to a university level. Unfortunately he dropped out maybe because of bullying, and was at the edge of becoming a drug addict. His mother could not help but watch her son go off the rails as an outcast.

This unlucky and dropout young man was given a helping hand by a family that has similar characteristics of the family who adopted and groomed the above-mentioned suicide bomber. He joined madras to learn basic Islamic teaching. According to his teachings he was promised of a good life in this world and after life, He felt rescued from his failures and troubles. He was immediately brainwashed with extreme ideology that made him believe Osman Bin Laden as his hero. The young man was made to hate the here and now-life, and he started to long for martyrdom and life in paradise.

After just a year of religious orientation, he was sent off to Somalia, where he executed one of the bloodiest and deadliest attacks in the country. He killed a lot of innocent Somali Muslims.

Profile 3: Is again another young teenager who shares some of the characteristics of the above lads in terms of education and upbringing. However, this teenager was born in a neighbouring country, i.e. Ethiopia or Kenya, where some Somali minority live in. His parents were Somalis but passed away when he was child. He also differs from other bombers because he suffers from some psychological and behaviour problems that he developed during childhood. This makes him vulnerable and susceptible to suggestions and manipulations. He also does not speak very good Somali and he mixes up his broken Somali with Swahili or Amharic languages.

This confused and troubled young man was again groomed for a suicide bomb mission by his “adopted” and trusted extremist family who really did not have the boy’s best interest at its heart. There is also a strong indication that the boy was financially induced to the mission. What a lethal cocktail of confusion, mental health and bribery!!

In few months time he was off to a region in Somalia where he drew a truck loaded with explosives to an Ethiopian military camp, killing few Ethiopian soldiers and infidels.

Profile 4: is a young of 20 year old. He was brought up by his family, and he lived with them. He has had a happy childhood, and was from a strong and well educated family. He grew up surrounded by his family’s love and support. He finished his Quranic and formal education up to high school. However, because of his family’s hatred of a foreign invasion and the humiliation they caused to their country and dignity, they decided to scarify their son to defend his country and religion. Without brainwash and other inducement, son accepted his parents’ decision, and he blew him up and killed invaders.

The last profile maybe a rarity.

As we can see from the above profiles except the last one, all these young men share some features and characteristics in terms of education, age group, vulnerability, unhappy childhood, and the role played by their foster families in coaching them for a suicide bomb mission. From the above description it would seem foster families did not have young men’s best interest at their hearts. To illustrate this point, please join me to read the following quote from the father of the suicide bomber in Beletweyne:

“...my son was 17 years old, I christened him Mohamed, he was my eldest son...because of fear I am in hiding ... you’ve heard the disaster that my son caused...my son (must have been) out of his head and not normal, they added drugs to his food...”[ii] Deerow Sheekh Aadan, the father of suicide bombers said

It would seems from the above illustrations that these young men were brainwashed and misled by adults who used them for a particular purpose, and because of these chaps’ disastrous actions many lives of Somalis and properties had been destroyed. Therefore the question is suicide bombing a Somali tradition/culture? And if not, how can this new phenomenon be treated? What Somali families can do to protect their children?

Let me leave answers to above questions to all Somalis everywhere!!

Muuse Yuusuf

Myuusuf3@hotmail.com

[1][1] Here is a list of some of the attacks that were carried out in Somalia:

1) June 2009 suicide bomber kills 20 in Beletweyne, including security minister, June 2009

2) 2Suicide bomber from Ealing (London), 21 year old business school drop out (October 2007) in Baidao

3) Shirwa Ahmed, suicide member from Minnesota Oct. 29, 2008, kills 20 in Hargeisa

4) Suicide bomber attacks Bosaaso Oct, 2008

5) Suicide bombers fail to assassinate Abdullahi Yusuf, Baidao 2006

6) Suicide bomber kills 7 near Somali PM's home, Mogadishu Jun 4 2007

7) Suicide bomber kills 7 guards on Monday 25th May, 2009 , mogadishu

8) National University, in Mogadishu, 22/02/09 against AMISON , 6 soldiers killed

9) Suicide bomb against Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu, 26/03/2007 by Adam Salad Adam

10) Suicide bomb against AMISOM soldiers, Mogadishu, 24/01/2009, 13 civilians and security personnel killed

[2] www.waagacusub.com