Islamic resistance fighters in Somalia have been struggling to overturn the US-backed regime in Mogadishu. Fighters from Hizbul Islam have joined al-Shabab in an offensive against the government.
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17-year-old who left Minnesota to return to Somalia feared killed in Mogadishu
Group of Somali men left state in 2008, feared recruited by al Qaeda-linked group
Somali Justice Advocacy Center asks feds for help to get body returned for U.S. burial
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- A Somali teen who left Minnesota to return to his native country last November has been reported killed.
The 17-year-old, who was not named, was reportedly killed Friday in artillery fire in the violence-ravaged nation's capital of Mogadishu, said the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The center is asking federal officials for help in bringing the teen's body back to the United States for burial, executive director Omar Jamal said.
The teen was among a group of young Somali-American men who left Minneapolis last year and were feared recruited by the extremist group, al-Shabaab, that has ties to al Qaeda, according to the U.S. State Department.
Al-Shabaab is blamed for a surge of violence in Somalia, as insurgents group fight the government to implement sharia, a stricter form of Islamic law.
The rebel group has said it has recruited many fighters in its battle.
Al-Shabaab, also known as the Mujahedeen Youth Movement, was officially designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government in March 2008.
In October, Shirwa Ahmed, 27, a Somali-American who had been radicalized by al-Shabaab in his adopted home state of Minnesota, traveled to Somalia and blew himself up and 29 others.
The incident, the first-ever suicide bombing by a naturalized U.S. citizen, raised red flags throughout the U.S. intelligence community.
Somalis began arriving in the United States in significant numbers after the U.S. intervention in Somalia's humanitarian crisis in 1992.
The Somali-American population is now concentrated in clusters primarily in Minneapolis; Columbus, Ohio; Seattle, Washington and San Diego, California.
The potential recruitment of young Somali-American men has been made possible by "a number of factors that come together when a dynamic, influential and extremist leader gains access to a despondent and disenfranchised group of young men," Andrew Liepman, deputy director for intelligence at the National Counterterrorism Center, said earlier this year.
Many refugees, he said, "lack structure and definition in their lives" and are "torn between their parents' traditional tribal and clan identities, and the new cultures and traditions offered by American society."
CNN's Chris Welch in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
Links referenced within this article
Al-Shabaab
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/al_shabaab
Somalia
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/somalia
Al Shabaab
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Al_Shabaab
Somalia
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Somalia
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http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/06/07/somalia.teen.killed/index.html
1 comment:
why does the somali justice advocacy want federal officials to help bring body of a criminal to the US?
the ungreatful refugee became an enemy of america and the world at large (somalians included) the day he decided to join terrorism. Somalians in the US should not mourn this criminal, who obviously joined groups that cause suffering to poor somalians in somalia. They should celebrate his death and let it it serve as a lesson to other young somalians in the US. Let his fellow terrorists burry him in Somalia.
The somalian justice advocacy should not come up with excuses like lack of structure, or lack of support. There are many American citizens who live in hardships and poor conditions worse than the refugees many of whom receive support and help from UNHCR
The advocay group instead of wasting time and resources making funeral arrangements for a criminal, they should channel the same resources in empowering and educating the somalian youths.
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