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Cholo Abdi Abdullah Obtained Pilot Training and Researched How to Hijack Aircraft in Order to Conduct a 9/11-Style Attack at the Direction of al ShabaabThe Department of Justice announced the unsealing of an indictment charging Cholo Abdi Abdullah with six counts of terrorism-related offenses arising from his activities as an operative of the foreign terrorist organization al Shabaab, including conspiring to hijack aircraft in order to conduct a 9/11-style attack in the United States. Abdullah was arrested in July 2019 in the Philippines on local charges, and was subsequently transferred on Dec. 15, 2020 in connection with his deportation from...

On November 16, 2016, the government of Kenya destroyed 5,250 guns.  The method used was fire. It isn’t that guns are not valued in Kenya.  Villages in Kenya are being raided for slaves by al Shabaab, an African affiliate of ISIS. They have sworn allegiance to the new Caliphate in the middle east. Kenya has allied with other govenments to fight them. Al Shabaab loudly proclaims its Islamic right to raid, kill, and enslave unbelievers.But the Kenya government does not trust the villagers with any guns, even single shot muzzle-loaders, let along AK47 rifles. From africanews.com: Somalia’s insurgent group...

Mombasa (Kenya) (AFP) - The widow of a radical imam was arrested Wednesday in Mombasa for alleged links to one of three female assailants shot dead while attacking the Kenyan city's main police station, a police source said. "She is in custody for questioning because of the communication she had with one of the female terrorists killed" in Sunday's attack, the source said, requesting anonymity. The assailants were alleged to be "sympathisers" of the Islamic State group. The arrested woman is the widow of Aboud Rogo Mohammed, an imam killed in Mombasa in August 2012 who was until his death...

The woman who took part in the ISIS-inspired San Bernardino massacre is linked to her native country's most notorious radical mosque, American officials believe. Sources have told Daily Mail Online that US officials handed over information to their Pakistani counterparts about links between Tashfeen Malik and the Red Mosque in Islamabad. The mosque is infamous for its links to violence and authorities in Pakistan are now considering taking action against its preacher, Maulana Abdul Aziz, after the disclosures by US officials. It is unclear currently how law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the US have connected Malik to the mosque.

Somali terror group Al-Shabaab could soon scrap its allegiance to Al-Qaeda and pledge loyalty to rivals ISIS instead, MailOnline has learned. Islamic State invited the east-African jihadi group to join forces with them through a propaganda video released in March - urging it to wage jihad on neighbouring Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania. Now Al-Shabaab members and sources within the Somali army suggest the invitation will be accepted and the group - which commands around 9,000 fighters - will soon extend ISIS's self-proclaimed caliphate to east-Africa. The decision comes at a time when many of Al-Shabaab's local and foreign leaders are...

MOGADISHU, Monday Kenyan fighter jets have bombed key Al-Shabaab bases, with scores of fighters killed, the African Union (AU) force fighting the extremists has said. The air strikes on the impoverished villages of Anole and Kuday in the southern Lower Juba region are part of the offensive by the 22,000-strong AU mission in Somalia (Amisom), which launched in March a fresh bid to wrest remaining towns from the Islamists. "Amisom forces have conducted airstrikes... as part of a sustained effort to destroy Al-Shabaab's military capabilities," the force said in a statement, adding it was Kenyan air planes that carried out...

At least 30 members of the militant Islamist group al Shabaab have been killed in an air strike on one of their training camps in Somalia, Kenya’s military said on Friday. The raid, which took place Thursday evening, targeted an al Shabaab camp in Garbarahey, a district situated in the southwestern Gedo region, which is near the country’s borders with Kenya and Ethiopia. "KDF (Kenya Defence Force) fighter jets attacked an al Shabaab camp, where a meeting was being held," a senior KDF official said. "Initial battle damage assessment indicates more than 30 al Shabaab militants [were] killed, including key...

Unidentified foreign forces have launched a night-time raid on a militant base in the south Somali town of Barawe from the sea, reports say. A spokesman for the al-Shabab Islamist group told Reuters news agency that one of its fighters had been killed during the raid....... Al-Shabab claimed responsibility last month for the deadly attack on a Kenyan shopping mall..... According to the Somali news website Midnimo, two helicopters were also involved in the raid..... "Westerners in boats attacked our base as Barawe beach and one was martyred from our side," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Masab, described as al-Shabab's spokesman for...

A document found after Somali troops killed Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, al Qaeda's former leader in East Africa and a senior Shabaab commander, details a plot to conduct multiple Mumbai-like attacks that target civilians in London. The plot highlights how al Qaeda and Shabaab seek to strike civilian targets outside Somalia, and foreshadowed Shabaab's attack on the Eastgate Mall in Kenya this week. -------------------------------------------------------------------snip--------------------------------------- Fazul said that the "first target" in London would be "Jewish communities with tens of thousands of Jews crammed in a small area" in the Golders Green and Stamford Hill neighborhoods of the city. "Our plan is...

Al-Shabaab, the Somali-based terrorist group that attacked a shopping mall in Kenya, said on Wednesday that foreigners were a "legitimate target". Speaking to the Associated Press (AP), members of the group confirmed that gunmen separated Muslims from others and let the Muslims go. In an email exchange with the news agency, the Al-Qaesa affiliate said the jihadis "carried out a meticulous vetting process" so the Muslims would not be harmed. At least 18 foreigners were killed, including six Britons, citizens from France, Canada, Trinidad, the Netherlands, Australia, Peru, India, Ghana, South Africa and China, when the terrorists entered the Westgate...

Reuters) - One of Somalia's most prominent Islamist rebel commanders, arrested by a regional administration, was flown to the capital Mogadishu on Saturday, where he agreed to hold talks with the federal government about his fate, Somali officials said. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, whose capture was a boost to Mogadishu in its battle against Islamist insurgents, was detained in central Somalia and then taken to the town of Adado. Much of Somalia has been stabilized after two decades of turmoil by a campaign that drove back the militant group al Shabaab. But the federal government, in charge for less than...

Somali militants attack UN base in Mogadishu, killing 15 Al-Shabaab says its fighters were responsible for suicide attack on compound that killed 15 people including UN personnel

Image that accompanied Abu Bakr al Baghdadi's audiotape announcing the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. The flag was originally al Qaeda in Iraq's banner, but has been adopted by other al Qaeda affiliated and associated groups. Image from the SITE Intelligence Group. The emir of al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), Abu Bakr al Baghdadi (also known as Abu Dua), has announced a new brand for his organization's efforts: the "Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant." The new name replaces all previous brands used by al Qaeda's affiliates in Iraq and Syria, including the...

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Somalia's al Qaeda-allied al Shabaab rebels Saturday mocked a US offer of up to $33 million for information enabling the arrest of its top leaders, saying they would give 10 camels to anyone who helped locate President Barack Obama. The highest price put up by the US State Department on Thursday was for al Shabaab chief Ahmed Abdi aw-Mohamed -- more commonly known as Godane or Abu Zubayr -- with a $7 million bounty for information on where he is hiding. "I can assure you that these kind of things will never dissuade us from continuing the...

Al-Shabaab, the Somali branch of al Qaeda, ousted American jihadi Abu Mansour al-Amriki from the group after he posted online video messages contrary to the terrorist organization's teachings, CNN reported. Al-Amriki, who was born Omar Hammami in a suburb of Mobile, Alabama, was, for a period of time, a key recruiter for the group, attracting Americans of Somali heritage to the African country to fight for the terrorist group. In March, however, al-Amriki posted a video saying he felt like he was at risk. "I feel that my life may be endangered by Harakat Shabaab al-Mujahideen due to some differences...

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, in a statement on an Islamist website, urged Somalia's al Shabaab insurgents to fight back against what he called "crusader invaders" after Kenyan forces forced them out of their last urban bastion. Backed by African Union (AU) peacekeepers, government forces have pushed the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab insurgents out of the main urban areas they took over in their five-year-old revolt, spurring many Somalis to return to rebuild their country. But the capital Mogadishu remains vulnerable to militant attacks. "Show them the fire of jihad (Islamic holy struggle) and its heat. Chase them with guerrilla...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Investigators probing the London terror bombings are focusing on an elusive British Muslim suspect who is connected to a previous plot to set up a terrorist training camp in rural southern Oregon, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials. Officials told both NBC News and CNN Wednesday that Haroon Rashid Aswat, believed to be a mastermind of the London bombings, is the same British-born Muslim of Indian descent who scouted a Bly, Oregon ranch to set up a terror camp. These officials said Aswat, a Pakistani national being sought for questioning as a person of interest by British authorities,...

Kenyan Muslims in Mombasa have rioted for the second day in a row after a Shabaab-linked cleric who was recently added to the US's list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists was gunned down. Shabaab supporters rampaged in Kenya's second largest city after Sheikh Aboud Rogo Mohammed was shot and killed as he was driving with his wife on Aug. 25. Shabaab supporters quickly organized and attacked and looted two churches, torched a government vehicle and other cars, and killed one person. The man was "slashed to death," according to The Daily Nation. Police have arrested 12 people for their involvement...

SNIPPET: "WASHINGTON, April 2 (UPI) -- A blackout of al-Qaida's main Web sites is in its 11th day, and officials think the forums may have been brought down in a cyberattack. While no one has claimed credit for disabling the sites..." SNIPPET: "The loss of information typically confuses and frustrates the readers of the Web sites. "It leaves the rank-and-file to guess which messages and which messengers are genuine al-Qaida, and provides undercover operators with new opportunities to disrupt the movement," said A. Aaron Weisburd, senior fellow at the Homeland Security Policy Institute."

I got myself a Twitter account just four weeks ago. It seems that my fortunes have taken a turn for the worse, having me barely edge out al-Shabaab, Islamist terrorists’ recent cause célèbre, which logged its first tweet on December 7. Al-Shabaab, or “The Youth,” is a militant Islamist group with ties to al-Qaeda that has laid siege to much of southern Somalia since 2006. The group is persistently fighting (and winning) an insurgency against the United Nations-backed Transitional Federal Government, which is contained in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. Still more pressingly, al-Shabaab has mounted attacks against African Union Mission in...