Word: shabab
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Federal authorities unsealed charges against eight people accused of recruiting young Americans to join an Islamist insurgency in Somalia. Officials say the ring persuaded about 20 Minneapolis men, most of them Somali natives, to fight alongside al-Shabab, a militant group linked to al-Qaeda. At least six fighters were killed. A total of 14 men have been charged in the case...
...Shabab's members are very clear about their objective: to overthrow Somalia's government and enact the strict Islamic law known as Shari'a. The group has banned music, videos, shaving and even bras in the areas it controls and maintains control through often brutal methods. Women accused of adultery are publicly stoned to death; teenaged thieves have had their limbs severed; one Somali said his brother was killed simply for selling phone cards to Ethiopian troops. Although Somalia is a majority Muslim nation, its faith has traditionally been far more moderate; the repressive al-Shabab is viewed by most...
...security experts what violent extremist group costs them the most sleep at night and the answer might very well be al-Shabab. Though not as far-reaching or well-known as al-Qaeda, the Somalia-based al-Shabab is particularly troubling to American officials due to its active recruitment of U.S. citizens - particularly from the large Somali community in and around Minneapolis - to join its battle against Mogadishu's weak interim government. In October 2008, the first known American suicide bomber - a 26-year-old Somali-American fighting with al-Shabab - blew himself up in northern Somalia...
Outsiders know relatively little about al-Shabab - Arabic for "the youth," also spelled al-Shabbab. The group is believed to have formed in mid-2004 as the military wing of the Islamic Court Union, a radical group that controlled much of Somalia before being ousted by the Ethiopian army in a U.S.-backed invasion in 2006. (Somalia has been without a strong central government since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown by warlords in 1991. Conflict in the Horn of Africa nation - one of the world's most lawless - has killed more than 19,000 people in the past three...
...primary concern among American security officials is that al-Shabab fighters with American passports could one day return and carry out terrorist acts within the United States. There is no evidence of any such plot to date, though the group has apparently expanded beyond its Somali base. In August, four Australian men with alleged al-Shabab connections were arrested and charged with plotting a gun attack on a military barracks near Sydney. The group has made clear that it views the United States as a potential adversary. After al-Shabab was added to America's list of terrorist nations...