On Tuesday, Somalia's answer to al-Qaeda, Al Shabaab, executed two teenagers in the central Somali region of Hiran. The executioners decapitated the young men during a public execution.
Insurgents loyal to Al Shabaab had captured 19-year old Abdikafi Mohammed Rashid, and his younger cousin Muhyedin Rashid Hajji, 18, and brought them to the regional capital of Hiran where they executed them.
Officials said they heard about the brutal killings of the teens, but didn't know why Al Shabaab singled them out for the vicious beheading. The young men are not believed to have been terrorists, insurgents or loyalists to the TFG (Transitional Federal Government).
During an ambush of a Somali government military base by Al Shabaab terrorists in Hiran, two Somali soldiers were reportedly killed, as well.
Generally, mostly Christians are publicly executed, while common criminals such as thieves will have their legs or hands or both amputated. Al Shabaab members reportedly force civilians, including children, to watch the gruesome executions, a U.S. intelligence officer told the Law Enforcement Examiner.
Al Shabaab, which loosely translates to “The Youth,” operates as a terrorist organization whose objective is the violent overthrow of the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), the ouster of African Union support, and the imposition of Shariah law in Somalia.
While Al Shabaab operates mainly in Somalia and North Africa, there have been suspects captured in the U.S. For example, American law enforcement officers nailed a Somali national after he attempted to blow up an improvised explosive device at a Christmas tree lighting celebration at Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, Oregon in December 2010.
FBI agents and Portland cops thwarted the teenager's plot to blow up a van full of explosives at a crowded venue. According to a report obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police's Terrorism Committee, the Somali teen's IED was a fake device supplied by undercover agents and civilians were never in danger.
The terror suspect, 19-year old Mohamed Osman Mohamud, was captured on late Friday afternoon after dialing a cellular phone he believed would detonate a large explosion at the Christmas ceremony. At that point, FBI agents and local police officers swarmed the suspect.
In their report, FBI agents stated that the Somali teenager was warned several times about the seriousness of his plan, that women and children could be killed, and that he could back out, but he told agents: "Since I was 15 I thought about all this;" and "It's gonna be a fireworks show ... a spectacular show."
In San Diego, in 2010, residents Basaaly Saeed Moalin, Mohamed Mohamed Mohamud, aka Mohamed Khadar, and Issa Doreh were charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, and related offenses.
The indictment, handed up on October 22, 2010, alleged that Moalin, Mohamud, and Doreh conspired to provide money to Al Shabaab. In February 2008, the Department of State designated al Shabaab as a foreign terrorist organization.
The federal indictment alleged that Al Shabaab has used assassinations, improvised explosive devices, rockets, mortars, automatic weapons, suicide bombings, and other tactics of intimidation and violence to undermine Somalia’s transitional federal government and its supporters.
Source: The Examiner
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