Free Republic

A senior Somali government official wants Canadians to pay closer attention to youths to make sure they are not being influenced by radical preachers trying to lure them into taking up arms in his country. Abdurahman Adan Ibrahim, a Member of Parliament and former Deputy Prime Minister, flew to Toronto last week to accompany a fellow MP who was badly wounded in an Al-Shabab suicide bombing in Mogadishu. In an interview, Mr. Ibrahim, a member of his government’s foreign relations committee, said several Somali-Canadians had joined Al-Shabab and that someone had radicalized them and financed their travel... the Canadians should...

The Kenyan Defense Force (KDF) said Thursday its warplanes had bombed a training camp located 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Binswor, Somalia, that is allegedly used by fighters of the al Qaeda-linked Somali militant group al-Shabab. The operation follows a Kenyan drone strike on Monday that killed two leading al-Shabab fighters. Kenyan military spokesman Colonel Cyrus Oguna told Reuters news agency Thursday's assault was in retaliation for the Westgate attack on September 21, which killed at least 67 people. The Kenyan Defense Force (KDF) said Thursday its warplanes had bombed a training camp located 50 kilometers (30 miles) east...

An air strike in southern Somalia has killed two senior commanders of the militant Islamist group, al-Shabab, residents have told the BBC. The strike destroyed the vehicle the militants were travelling in between the towns of Jilib and Barawe, seen as a major base of al-Shabab, they said. The US launched a failed raid in Barawe earlier this month to capture an al-Shabab commander. Al-Shabab is the main al-Qaeda-linked group in East Africa. A Kenyan military source told the BBC their troops had raided Jilib, and that there might have been some casualties. However, correspondents say it is unlikely that...

Kenya mall video of soldiers looting after shooting New security footage has emerged online after the Westgate mall attack in Kenya, the video shown below shows what looks like security soldiers taking goods from the mall and not paying for them. Last month the Kenya mall shooting left 67 dead after suspected al-Shabab militants stormed the Nairobi Westgate shopping centre on 21 September. The video below clearly shows Kenyan soldiers carrying white bags and taking goods from the store without consent, according to reports the Kenyan military are investigating the looting allegations. The mall sells food, mobile phones and televisions,...

In a stealthy seaside assault in Somalia, U.S. special forces on Saturday struck out against Islamic extremists who have carried out terrorist attacks in East Africa, before eventually aborting the mission to capture a leading terrorist suspect linked to last month's Nairobi shopping mall attack after a fierce firefight. A U.S. Navy SEAL team swam ashore near a town in southern Somalia before militants of the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group al-Shabab rose for dawn prayers. The raid on a house in the town of Barawe targeted a specific al-Qaeda suspect related to the mall attack, but the operation did not get...

Past US strikes on Al Shabab leaders, even successful ones, have not diminished the group.A commando unit from the US Navy’s Seal Team Six launched an amphibious raid on a Somali town, but failed to confirm a capture or kill of their Al Shabab target, suspected to be linked to Nairobi’s Westgate mall terror attack. The operation could have opposite its intended result of discouraging further attacks. Analysts warn that even earlier successful targeted strikes against Al Shabab, a Somalia-based Islamist militant group, failed to curb the group's capacity to carry out international terror attacks, and that failed missions could...

American officials have announced the capture of an unidentified official of the al Shabab terrorist organization The terrorist was seized in an early morning raid at the beachfront house in Baraawe, Somalia where al Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane was last known to be living Al Shabab confirmed the attack, saying one of their fighters had been killed but that they had pushed back the SEALs American officials would not say whether the official had been taken dead or alive A Navy SEAL team has launched a daring raid on Somalia and captured a top terror leader linked to last...

<p>As if the senseless massacre of innocents in Nairobi’s Westgate mall was not horrific enough, reports are surfacing that the Islamic terrorists who seized the mall last weekend tortured, beheaded, raped, and mutilated their victims before killing them. A police doctor who entered the mall after the attack said these reports “are not allegations. Those are f***ing truths.”</p>

The woman in a full-length burka walked calmly into the drab government office. She moved close to the desk behind which an administrator was shuffling his papers. Others queued around her. Suddenly, without warning, she detonated the suicide vest she was wearing. The explosion flashed a brilliant white on the grainy CCTV before the cameras cut out, obliterating everything – and everyone – in the room.

Don’t you remember? Most of America, of course, doesn’t. The mainstream media never told the masses. They were too busy fawning over the fraud who wound up being awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Sick irony, that. As the smoke clears and the body count mounts from the appalling Islamic terrorist attack on the shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, the fact that Obama had a personal hand in paving the way for groups like Al-Shabab to flourish in that part of Africa gets no coverage. Those of us who pay attention to the real news know that in 2006, as...

A pregnant woman who was a recent Harvard School of Public Health graduate was among more than 60 people murdered by Islamic terrorists in an upscale Kenyan mall, along with the father of her unborn child. HSPH faculty members recalled yesterday Elif Yavuz, 33, as an expert on malaria, and as a remarkable student who had a flair for colorful fashion and a great sense of humor.“We are all in shock. She was such a wonderful person,” Thomas Bossert, director of the school’s international health services program, told the Herald. -

Al-Shabaab is claiming that there are American gunmen among those still holed up in the Westgate mall in a standoff with Kenyan and Israeli special forces. The Somali al-Qaeda affiliate tweeted a series of names on its latest account before Twitter against suspended the group. Al-Shabaab has been creating new accounts each time they get shut down but a movement of pro-Kenyan tweeters has been tracking down the new accounts and complaining to Twitter. “We received permission to disclose the names of our mujahideen inside #Westgate,” their latest account tweeted. They proceeded to tweet the names one by one, including...

A member of the House Homeland Security Committee says the al-Qaida affiliated group behind the deadly attack on an upscale shopping mall in Kenya recruited up to 50 people from Somali American communities in the U.S.

There are 31 people confirmed dead in Saturday's attack at a Nairobi shopping mall, the Kenya National Disaster Operation Centre tweeted. "Bodies in the lobby area and ground floor to be removed," the organization added. Several hours after the assault began, Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked militant group based in Somalia, claimed responsibility for the bloodshed. There were also 100 people injured, the official said. As darkness fell in Nairobi, authorities said as many as 36 hostages are still being held by the gunmen in the mall... Americans were also injured in the attack, said Deputy State Department Spokesperson Marie Harf. But...

Kenyan police and soldiers have pinned down the remaining gunmen who opened fire at a shopping centre earlier today, killing 30 and leaving at least 50 others injured. A security source at the scene in the capital Nairobi confirmed moments ago the attackers have been isolated. The source said: 'The attackers have been isolated and are pinned down in an area on one of the floors - the rest of the mall seems to be secure.' No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it is looking increasingly likely the Somalia terrorist group al-Shabaab may be responsible. A statement released...

Excerpt of article accompanying 14 photos of attack at source link: Militant gunmen stormed a shopping mall in Nairobi on Saturday killing at least 25 people, including children, and sending scores fleeing in panic from shops and restaurants onto the streets, according to witnesses and the Red Cross. Shooting continued hours after the initial assault as troops surrounded the Westgate mall and police and soldiers combed the building, hunting down the attackers shop by shop. A police officer inside the building said the gunmen were barricaded inside the Nakumatt supermarket, one of Kenya's biggest chains. "We got three bodies from...

American jihadi Omar Hammami was murdered “in cold blood,” a Somalia-based Islamic center said, backing up reports that the militant from Alabama was killed Thursday by his rivals within the Somali Islamic extremist group al-Shabab.The Islamic World Issues Study Center published a tribute online in which it describes the killings of Hammami, 29, and two other militants as a “tragedy,” saying al-Shabab should be “directing their arrows at the enemies of the group,” according to a report issued Saturday by SITE Intel Group, an American private company that analyzes terror threats. … In an interview last week with Voice of...

Some 160 Somali religious scholars have issued a fatwa denouncing al-Shabab, saying the group had no place in Islam. Correspondents say it is the first time Somali religious leaders have come up with a fatwa against the group, which controls much of the country. At a conference on the phenomenon of extremism in Mogadishu, the scholars said it condemned al-Shabab's use of violence. Al-Shabab, or "The Youth", is fighting to create an Islamic state in Somalia. Despite being pushed out of key cities in the past two years, it still remains in control of smaller towns and large swathes of...

SNIPPET: "Gufran Ahmed Kauser Mohammed, 30, and Mohamed Hussein Said, 25, face an indictment charging them with conspiring to provide and attempting to provide material support to three U.S.-designated terrorist organizations that have operated in Iraq, Syria and Somalia, according to authorities." SNIPPET: "The defendants, while based overseas in 2011-13, allegedly sent thousands of dollars via Western Union to an al-Qaida terrorist affiliate, al-Nusrah Front, which is fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. They also allegedly sent funds to al-Shabaab, another terrorist group seeking to overthrow the U.S.-backed transitional government in Somalia."

Minority Christians in Somalia faced more violence Tuesday, June 25, after news emerged that Islamic militants publicly executed a young man because he was a Christian. The 28-year-old Hassan Hurshe, who had become a Christian while living in neighboring Kenya, was shot by fighters of the al-Shabab group earlier this month while returning to the Somalian town of Jilib, on the main road from capital Mogadishu, local residents said. After his June 7 execution, Hurshe's parents, widow and son reportedly fled the area. The reported execution undecrored al-Shabab's proclaimed intention "to rid Somalia of every Christian." Though many Somali converts...