British ex-jihadist Osama al-Britani killed after bust-up with ruthless Somali terror group
12 Sep 2013 19:00
Al-Britani and his American friend Omar Hammami – known as al-Amriki – were tracked down to a village outside the capital Mogadishu
Terror: Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked al Shabaab rebel group Reuters
A British former jihadist was killed in a dawn shoot-out in Somalia today following a bust-up in the ruthless al-Shabaab terror group.
Osama al-Britani died with an American associate wanted by the FBI.
They were allies of a leader who split from the al-Qaeda-linked organisation in June.
The two fled but terror bosses immediately ordered a manhunt for the pair, who had been joined by several bodyguards.
Al-Britani and his American friend Omar Hammami – known as al-Amriki – were tracked down to a village outside the capital Mogadishu.
Local resident Hussein Nur said: “This morning al-Amriki and his comrades were attacked by well armed fighters.
"Al-Amriki and his two colleagues were killed after a brief fight.”
Reuters
Several men guarding them escaped.
A shopkeeper in al-Baate village said he had heard al-Shabaab fighters confirm the deaths, though he had not seen the bodies.
He added: “No-one is allowed near the scene.”
The village was today under control of the terrorists.
The killings expose widening rifts in al-Shabaab’s top ranks as the group battles an African Union-led military offensive to drive them out.
Al-Britani and al-Amriki were linked to former al-Shabab chief Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who split from the group in June.
Pair were allies of Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys Getty
The al-Shabaab leadership has been hunting down allies of Aweys, who is in the custody of Somalia’s United Nations-backed government.
He is seen as less hardline than al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane.
The Foreign Office is investigating the death of Al-Britani, who was of Pakistani origin.
A statement said: “We are aware of reports of the death of a British national in Somalia and are looking into this.”
There have been previous reports of al-Britani’s death including a recent one that he had been killed in Afghanistan.
Training camp: Al-Shabaab militants Getty
Al-Amriki had been on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists List since November when a £3.1 million bounty was offered for information leading to his capture.
He has recorded jihadist raps which he posted on YouTube.
Al-Amriki is thought to have arrived in Somalia aged 22 in late 2006, shortly before a US-backed Ethiopian military incursion into Somalia had dislodged the government.
Fluent in Somali, Al-Amriki swiftly became an influential leader of al-Shabaab’s foreign jihadists who had joined the fight to topple a government which they considered a Western puppet.
Who are Al-Shabaab?
Al-Shabaab is the Somalia branch of al-Qaeda and is believed to have a guerilla army of almost 15,000 fighters.
Until three years ago, the highly trained, well-armed group had control of southern Somalia, imposing Sharia law there.
Under its ruthless rule, women suspected of adultery were executed and thieves had their hands chopped off as punishment.
The faction has intimidated, kidnapped and killed aid workers, leading humanitarian aid operations to flee the country.
But al-Shabaab – Arabic for “the youth” – has lost much of its previously held territory.
It left Mogadishu two years ago and soldiers from a coalition of African countries have claimed huge victories over the group in recent years.
Al-Shabaab joined al-Qaeda in 2012 and is sworn to battle the enemies of Islam, which covers most of the Western world.
Al-Amriki and al-Britani: Militants 'killed' in Somalia
12 September 2013 Last updated at 13:57 GMT
Al-Amriki was known for rapping jihadist songs which were loaded onto YouTube
Two top Islamist militants, from the US and UK, have been killed in Somalia after falling out with al-Shabab, witnesses have told the BBC.
Omar Hammami, known as al-Amriki, and Osama al-Britani, a British citizen of Pakistani origin, are said to have died in an early-morning attack in a village south-west of the capital, Mogadishu.
They had been hiding from al-Shabab since leaving the group this year.
There have been several previous reports of al-Amriki's death.
One of al-Amriki's fighters told the BBC that they had been overpowered by the al-Shabab attack in a village near the town of Dinsor.
----- Fatwa denouncing al-Shabab:
A delegate reading the Koran at the National Conference on Tackling Extremism in Somalia - September 2013
* Al-Shabab has strayed from the correct path of Islam * The Somali government is an Islamic administration; it is forbidden to fight against it * Al-Shabab must atone to God and must cease its erroneous ideology and criminal actions * It is forbidden to join, sympathise or give any kind of support to al-Shabab. * It is a religious duty to refuse shelter to al-Shabab members * It is a taboo to negotiate on behalf of al-Shabab members in custody or release them from jail * Somali officials have a religious duty to protect the Somali people from al-Shabab's atrocities - as do the public to help them in their security operations against the group.
He said al-Shabab had taken away the bodies of the two Westerners.
Another of their allies, Khadap al-Masari, from Egypt, surrendered, the fighter said.
Local residents confirmed the deaths, as did a senior source within al-Shabab.
"There was a gun battle between al-Amriki and his men and other fighters," Moalim Ali, a resident in Bardhere village, told the AFP news agency.
Another resident, Mohamed Wardhere, said: "Al-Amriki and two other fighters, one of them a foreigner, have been killed near Bardhere."
The two men were allies of veteran Somali Islamist, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who split from al-Shabab in June.
He is currently in the custody of the UN-backed government.
BBC Somali analyst Mohamed Mohamed says al-Shabab has been hunting down and killing allies of Mr Aweys since the split.
Mr Aweys is seen as less hardline than al-Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane, who also has a more international agenda.
Al-Amriki was known for rapping jihadist songs which were loaded onto YouTube.
He grew up in the town of Daphne in the state of Alabama, where friends said he was popular at school, quick-witted, charismatic and elected president of his school year.
According to his schoolfriend, James Culveyhouse, his father is a Sunni Muslim from Syria and his mother a Southern Baptist Christian.
Over the years he became an adherent of stricter and stricter Islam - turning far more orthodox than his father.
He moved to Somalia in 2006 and joined al-Shabab, becoming one of the group's senior officials.
Back on Twitter
Little is known about al-Britani.
UK officials say they have been aware of the Briton's presence in Somalia for some time but would not confirm either his death or his real name.
BBC Security correspondent Frank Gardner says there have been fears that British jihadists heading to Somalia would return to the UK to carry out attacks but officials say their numbers are now dwarfed by those going to fight in Syria.
The news of the killings of the foreign militants in Somalia comes a day after a group of 160 leading Islamic scholars issued a fatwa denouncing al-Shabab, saying the group had no place in Islam.
Nairobi-based Somali analyst Mohamed Abdullahi told the BBC's Newsday programme that the fatwa, issued by so many prominent scholars, is likely to sway opinions on the ground, but is unlikely to change the path of those in the group's top leadership.
"[It says] you cannot give them sanctuary, you cannot support them, you have to report their presence and you have to assist international security agencies so the fatwa includes a security element of community policing against al-Shabab," he said.
But it should be coupled with other efforts to win the hearts and minds of people on the ground, he added.
"There must be another parallel programme to ensure that those young men who joined for economic reasons, for instance, are provided with employment or opportunities."
The edict was announced at the end of a conference on tackling extremism organised by the government of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
He took office a year ago, vowing to end two decades of fighting in the country.
Last week, al-Shabab's Twitter account was suspended for a second time after claiming on its feed that it had ambushed the convoy of the president, who was unhurt.
It has since set up a new account.
Pro-government forces have pushed al-Shabab out of several key cities but the group still controls many smaller towns and rural areas.
Ten things you should know about the terrorists behind the Kenya mall attack
Understanding the motivations of Al-Shabab
By Associated Press Monday, Sep 23, 2013 04:45 AM +1000
Kenya security personnel move to take position outside the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2013 after gunmen threw grenades Saturday and opened fire during an attack that left multiple dead and dozens wounded. A witness to the attacks on the upscale shopping mall says that gunmen told Muslims to stand up and leave and that non-Muslims would be targeted. (Credit: AP/Sayyid Azim)
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Here are 10 things to know about al-Shabab, the Somali Islamic extremist group that has claimed responsibility for the attack on Kenya’s premier shopping mall that killed dozens of civilians.
WHAT IS AL-SHABAB?
Al-Shabab is an extremist Islamic terrorist force that grew out of the anarchy that crippled Somalia after warlords ousted a longtime dictator in 1991. Its name means “The Youth” in Arabic, and it was a splinter youth wing of a weak Islamic Courts Union government created in 2006 to establish a fundamentalist Islamic state in the East African nation. Al-Shabab is estimated to have several thousand fighters, including a few hundred foreign fighters. Some of the insurgents’ foreign fighters are from the Middle East with experience in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Others are young, raw recruits from Somali communities in the United States and Europe. U.S. officials have expressed fears that militants fleeing Afghanistan and Pakistan could seek refuge in Somalia.
WHERE IS AL-SHABAB?
Al-Shabab won control of almost all of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, in 2006, and held large swathes of central and southern Somalia until a United Nations-backed force from the African Union, including soldiers from neighboring Kenya and Uganda, pushed the militants out of the city in 2011 and out of the vital port of Kismayo in 2012. The rebels still control many rural areas in Somalia where it imposes strict Shariah law, including stoning to death women accused of adultery and amputating the hands of accused thieves. In addition it has staged deadly suicide bomb attacks on Mogadishu and Kismayo.
HOW MANY FIGHTERS DOES IT HAVE?
No one knows for sure, but al-Shabab is believed to command thousands of fighters including hundreds of foreigners.
WHY ARE THEY ATTACKING KENYA?
Al-Shabab has warned for two years that it will attack Kenya in retaliation for the country’s leading role in sending troops to Somalia in 2011 and effectively reducing the extremist group’s power in Somalia. Al-Shabab also claimed responsibility for the July 2010 suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, that killed more than 70 people watching a World Cup final soccer match at a restaurant popular among foreigners. Ugandan troops also are fighting in the African force in Somalia.
The group has staged ongoing major attacks within Somalia for years.
AL-QAIDA LINKS?
Al-Shabab and al-Qaida in February 2012 announced their alliance, with al-Shabab leader Mukhtar Abu Zubair pledging allegiance to the global terror movement. Al-Qaida’s 2002 attacks on an Israeli-owned Kenyan resort in Mombasa and an attempted attack on a plane carrying Israeli tourists are believed to have been planned by an al-Qaida cell in Somalia. U.S. officials believe some of the al-Qaida terrorists who bombed the United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 were given refuge in Somalia.
WHERE DOES AL-SHABAB’S MONEY COME FROM?
Before African troops moved in, al-Shabab was making a steady income from duties and fees levied at ports and airports as well as extorting taxes on domestic produce and demanding “jihadi” contributions. A United Nations report estimated al-Shabab’s income in 2011 at between $70 million and $100 million. It has lost most of that revenue since it was forced out of Mogadishu and Kismayo. Al-Shabab’s only ally in Africa is Eritrea — which backs it to counter its enemy Ethiopia, which also has troops in Somalia. Eritrea denies charges that it helps arm al-Shabab.
FRACTURED GROUP?
Al-Shabab is believed to have fractured over its alliance with al-Qaida, which caused a rift that has grown between core Shabab fighters who believe their struggle should focus on Somalia, and growing tensions with foreign fighters who want to plot a regional terrorist strategy. Analysts think attack on Nairobi’s Westgate mall could indicate the extremists are winning that internal struggle. Further divisions are believed to have been caused by the group’s decision to ban foreign aid organizations from operating in the country and providing food to save millions of victims of conflict-induced famine. That decision was announced in 2011, when the U.N. said Somalia had the world’s highest child mortality rate.
U.S. ROLE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST AL-SHABAB?
The United States backed the first African intervention against al-Shabab, supporting Ethiopian troops that invaded in 2006. Washington has given millions of dollars to support the U.N.-backed African force fighting al-Shabab, which it designated a foreign terrorist organization in 2008. The intervention from Ethiopia, a longtime enemy of Somalia, is considered to have radicalized al-Shabab and perhaps pushed it into the arms of al-Qaida, according to the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
WHAT INSPIRES THEM?
Al-Shabab is inspired by the Saudi Arabian Wahabi version of Islam though most Somalis belong to the more moderate Sufi strain. While they initially won popularity with Somalis by promising security and stability after years of lawlessness and violence, al-Shabab’s destruction of Sufi shrines has cost them much support among locals.
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR SOMALIA?
Somalia’s first elected government in more than two decades won power a year ago and, together with the African Union force, has the opportunity to create “a window of opportunity to fundamentally change Somalia’s trajectory,” according to the U.S. State Department. Business is growing and even foreign oil companies are negotiating concessions at the most hopeful moment in decades for that failed state.
.. one thing that many seem to forget or ignore is that that the battle against violent extremists is not simply one being fought by the USA, but in fact the the African Union as part of the UN .. and by many other countries themselves .. so to use the attack in Kenya as an anti-Obama dart .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=92280316 .. i reckon is nonsense .. really .. it's about as unreal as suggesting Snyder had no influence on the problems of Detroit before the bankruptcy, as some have suggested in the past .. yeah, the latter was a wandering ot thought .. lol ..
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