More than 20 Somali-Americans have gone to Somalia to enlist in the Shabaab, an Islamist group battling the country's government.
1991 A civil war leads to the collapse of Somalia's last functioning central government.
2006 An Islamist group seizes control of much of Somalia for six months until Ethiopian forces, at the request of Somalia's transitional government and with the backing of the U.S., invade. The event prompts a political awakening among young Somalis around the world.
Late 2007 The first wave of Somali-American men suspected of joining the Shabaab were in their 20s and 30s and began leaving in late 2007, with the last of them departing the following spring. They had arrived in Minneapolis as young refugees, some of them in their teens, and largely struggled to find their place in America. The men spent time together at the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in Minneapolis, where several of them volunteered on the mosque’s committees.
Shirwa Ahmed, 26, had come to America as a young boy, surfacing first in Portland in 1994 and then Minneapolis, where he graduated from Roosevelt High School in 2000. For a time he worked pushing airline passengers in wheel chairs and took classes at several local community colleges. By 2003, he was becoming increasingly religious. He drove a beat-up Toyota, delivering packages for a medical supplies company, one friend recalled, and in his spare time offered food and counsel to drunken Somali boys near the Towers, a collection of apartment buildings in south Minneapolis where many Somalis live. “He wanted to bring them back to the culture,” one friend said. Mr. Ahmed left for Saudi Arabia at the end of 2007 and never returned.
Ahmed Ali Omar was a 24-year-old emergency medical technician who worked for an ambulance service and sat on the recreation committee at the mosque. He was later identified by friends as one of the men featured in a recent Shabaab recruitment video.
Khalid Abshir, 26, worked at a car-rental company and was active with the mosque’s youth programs. In March 2007, not long before he left for Somalia, he and Shirwa Ahmed were the victims of a hit-and-run accident, according to police records.
Abdifatah Isse had recently moved to Minneapolis from Seattle before he left for Somalia. He later defected from the Shabaab, and resurfaced in Seattle last spring according to a lawyer.
Kamal Hassan had once worked as a waiter at his family’s restaurant near the Towers, and he was on the resource committee at the mosque. Several friends said in interviews that he had also defected from the Shabaab and returned to Minneapolis this year.
Zakaria Maruf, 30, moved to Minneapolis as a young teenager in 1993. He was promptly arrested for trying to steal a $15.99 necklace at a mall in Minneapolis and later fell in with the Hot Boyz, a violent street gang that had started out as a rhythm and blues band performing at Somali weddings. He visited Canada and other cities while on a traveling basketball team and graduated from Edison High School in 2000, but his criminal record hampered his search for a job, one friend recalled. He eventually found work in the stock room of a Wal-Mart in St. Paul. At the mosque, he was known for his call to prayer, which is still a ringtone on some cellphones in Minneapolis. He left for Somalia in the spring of 2008 and later emerged as a recruiter for the Shabaab. Mr. Maruf's Call to Prayer
Fall 2008 The second wave of men who left for Somalia were younger and more successful than their predecessors. With the exception of one of the men, an American convert to Islam, they were young Somalis who had mostly been raised in the United States and seemed to be excelling at their high schools and colleges. They dropped out and disappeared in small groups, first in August and then November.
Mustafa Ali, born in 1990, was a senior at Harding High School in St. Paul, where he was on the wrestling team. Mr. Ali and a teenage friend, Mohamed Hassan, tried to buy tickets to Somalia as early as spring 2008. Leaders of the Abubakar mosque said they warned the boys’ parents. But the pair moved ahead with their plans. That summer, they were seen knocking on doors at apartment buildings in south Minneapolis, trying to raise donations for “an orphanage.” Mr. Ali left Minneapolis on Aug. 2, according to a travel itinerary.
Mohamed Hassan, known to his friends as Miski, was a 17-year-old senior at Roosevelt High School, where he wore a prayer cap over his long hair. Last summer, one friend said, Mr. Hassan helped coordinate conference calls with Zakaria Maruf, a Minneapolis man who had left in the first wave and was now trying to recruit more men to the cause. Mr. Hassan left on Aug. 3, according to a travel itinerary, and continued to communicate with friends in the United States. For a time, his Facebook profile picture was of Osama bin Laden.
Mohamoud Hassan, born in 1986, moved to San Diego as a small boy. He eventually relocated to south Minneapolis, where he shared an apartment with his grandmother, with whom he was very close. Answering to the nickname Snake, he saw his share of gang-related violence, including the shooting of another young Somali in 2007, according to a police report. But he seemed determined to succeed, his friends recalled, becoming one of the few Somali boys from his class at Roosevelt High School to make it to college, where he majored in engineering and wrote poetry. He left for Somalia on Nov. 1, according to an itinerary, but continued to correspond with friends in Minneapolis by telephone and Facebook.
Troy Matthew Kastigar was a 27-year-old convert to Islam known as Abdirahman. Mr. Kastigar, who had a long record of misdemeanors, played basketball on a traveling team with young Somalis and sometimes prayed at the mosque. One friend recalled that Mr. Kastigar had begun collecting donations, saying he wanted to study Islam in the Middle East. He also earned money giving haircuts and selling shoes. He left on Nov. 3, according to a travel itinerary. In an interview, a man who identified himself as Mr. Kastigar’s brother said he was in Somalia but denied that he had joined the Shabaab. Mr. Kastigar's Criminal Record (pdf)
Abdikadir Ali Abdi, a young Somali who lived in Hopkins, a suburb of Minneapolis, was sometimes seen praying at the Minnesota Da’wah Institute, a mosque in St. Paul. He left on Nov. 3, according to a travel itinerary.
Abdisalan Ali was only a few months old when his family escaped Somalia in a makeshift wooden boat, seeking refuge at a Kenyan refugee camp, his mother said in an interview. One of 12 children, he arrived in Seattle in 2000 and later settled in northeast Minneapolis. At Edison High School, he sold sneakers from his locker to help support his family. Stocky from lifting weights, he answered to the nickname Bullethead. Mr. Ali was elected president of the Somali Student Association at Edison and later, was a caseworker at the law firm Briggs & Morgan. “He was a highly motivated kid,” recalled his former mentor, adding that Mr. Ali “wanted to change lives.” With dreams of becoming a doctor, Mr. Ali pursued a pre-med track at the University of Minnesota, majoring in chemical engineering. One night in 2008, after meeting with his mentor to discuss the MCATs, he was wrongly accused of robbing a Subway on campus. The incident left him bruised long after the charges were dropped, friends said. He left for Somalia on Nov. 3, according to a travel itinerary, and has continued to communicate with friends in Minneapolis by phone and on Facebook.
Jamal Sheikh Bana was born in 1989 and barely survived malaria in a Kenyan refugee camp after his family fled Somalia, his mother said in an interview. They arrived in Georgia in 1996 with the help of the Lutheran Church. Mr. Bana, then 7, turned on the tap in their new home and watched in amazement as the water kept flowing. The family later relocated to Minneapolis, where Mr. Bana studied electrical engineering at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minn., and at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. He worked at Macy’s and as a security guard for Minneapolis public housing, helping to support his six younger siblings, who included two deaf children. Mr. Bana’s father reported him missing to the police after the young man disappeared at dawn on Nov. 3. More than eight months later, on July 11, friends of the family said he was killed in Mogadishu.
Burhan Hassan, born in 1991, was only 5 when he arrived in Minneapolis from a refugee camp in Kenya. The youngest of four children, he grew up in the Towers, playing basketball and soccer, and spending much of his free time at the Abubakar mosque, where he received an award for memorizing the Koran. Known to his friends as Little Bashir, he excelled at math and dreamed of becoming a doctor or lawyer. He talked of applying to Harvard, his uncle, Abdirizak Bihi said. The 17-year-old boy was a senior at Roosevelt High School when he disappeared on Nov. 4, later calling home from Somalia. Shabaab's Latest Propaganda Video
Oct. 2008 Shirwa Ahmed dies in an attack in northern Somalia, becoming America's first known suicide bomber.
Jan. 2009 Ethiopian troops withdraw and the fighting intensifies.
March 2009 Burhan Hassan's uncle testifies at a Congressional hearing examining the case of the missing Somali men and their possible recruitment to the Shabaab. Transcript of Hearing
June 2009 Burhan Hassan is shot dead in Mogadishu, his family says.
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