FBI agents are investigating whether an American teenager detonated one of two stolen UN vehicles packed with explosives at a peacekeepers base in Somalia, killing 21 people last week.
The probe highlights a disturbing trend of Somali-American youths returning to their ancestral homeland to fight for an Islamic militia that the US government links to al-Qaeda.
Community blogger Abdirahman Warsame said that FBI agents in Seattle, Washington, had visited the home of Mohamed Mohamud on Tuesday to investigate whether 18-year-old Omar, Mohamud’s son, was involved in a twin suicide bombing in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, last Thursday. He spoke to Mohamud at a local mosque on Thursday, two days after FBI agents visited.
Insurgents drove two stolen UN cars into an African Union peacekeeping base and detonated them. Twenty-one people were killed, including 17 Burundian and Ugandan peacekeepers. Markings on the cars meant they were not subject to the usual security checks.
Authorities already have been alarmed by the efforts of Somali Islamic insurgents — some of whom have links to al-Qaeda — targeting young Somali men in the US and other countries with a series of slickly produced Internet videos extolling the virtues of a jihad.
The involvement of Americans raises both the profile of the insurgents’ struggle and fears that insurgents could use the men to attack foreign targets.
Three men, two from the Minneapolis area and one from Seattle, have pleaded guilty in federal court in Minneapolis to terror charges this year after up to 20 Somali-American youths vanished. At least three Minnesota men have died, including one whom authorities say carried out a suicide bombing.
If the Seattle link is confirmed, it would be the second time an American youth has carried out a suicide attack in the war-ravaged Horn of Africa nation.
Warsame said Mohamud had been prepared for the visit by the US federal agents following calls from relatives and Internet reports that an American had been involved in the attack.
“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,” Warsame said. “He was in mourning.”
The agents took DNA samples from Mohamud, suggested that he turn off his phone line because the number had been published on a Somali Web site and warned him not to speak to the media, he said.
Al-Shabab, a local Islamic militia, said last Thursday’s bombing was in retaliation for a US commando raid on Sept. 14 that killed al-Qaeda operative Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in southern Somalia.
Experts, however, have said planning such a raid would have taken considerably longer than three days.
Al-Shabab, 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-Qaeda and showing foreign trainers moving among its fighters.
Somali expert Roland Marchal at the Center for International Studies and Research in Paris said if Mohamud was involved in last week’s attack it would strengthen concerns over whether the extremist group might try to target the US.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS