Translated material
Recruits from Minnesota
Who were the militants who captured several dozen hostages in the shopping center in Nairobi
Among the terrorists who attacked the shopping center in the capital of Kenya were citizens of different countries. What kind of people are they, why did they choose jihad and how they get to Africa - The NEW Times asked in the American state of Minnesota, where the largest community of immigrants from Somali settled in the USA
Almost a thousand visitors to the WestGate shopping center in Nairobi managed to escape in the first minutes of the attack
| *On September 26, Interpol at the request of the Kenyan authorities nevertheless wrote out an arrest warrant of Samantha Lyutaite, a 29-year-old British, the “white widow” of Jermen Lindsay, a terrorist who undermined himself in 2005 and another 26 people in the London metro. According to eyewitnesses, Lyutaite also took part in the raid and calmly shot unarmed people. |
On September 22, Kenysk special forces, with the support of Israeli experts in combating terrorism, began the assault on the Westgate shopping center in Nairobi, where on the eve of 16 militants from the Islamist group Ash Shabab captured several dozens of hostages. On September 23, the assault was still ongoing, but the head of the Foreign Ministry of Kenya Amin Muhammad already announced the first data: among the terrorists - British and three Americans of Somali origin. Two of them, 18 and 19 years old, lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On September 25, US Prosecutor General Eric Holder said that Pentagon is not known about the American citizens who participated in the attack. A similar statement was made by the British authorities*. At the time of delivery of the number, rescuers continued to disassemble the blocks of Westgate: three floors of buildings that fell during the assault were buried under them an unknown number of hostages and terrorists. The latest official figures spoke about 67 victims, but Ash Shabab militants reported 137 dead on the Internet. In general, such impudence-PR active in a public field, and even when the operation of the special services is not completed-the story of the fight against terrorism, perhaps, does not remember. The number of attackers is also unknown: five were killed in a shootout, however, according to the testimonies, from 10 to 15 people took part in the attack, the rest should also be under the rubble. One way or another, among the killed Islamists, neither the British nor the Americans have found. Bye…
Northern shelter
August 21, 2013, St. Paul (Minnesota, USA), Landmark Center, naturalization ceremony-obtaining American citizenship. The justice of the peace Gene Graham in alphabetically calls countries whose representatives from this minute become the owners of American passports. In the White Hall with columns for 300 seats, representatives of Belarus, Venezuela, Iran, Mexico, Russia, Uganda ... get up in a single room in turn. Only with the word “Somalia” a whole crowd rises: dozens of tall slender women in skirts to the floor with African scarfs tied in African heads, children, very tall men ... They applaud them, they applaud, kiss, cry with happiness. After a few minutes, they will attach their right hand to the heart and sing God bless America.
Minnesota was not in vain in the news reports from the first days of the attack in Nairobi: the Somali community in this northern state has about 80 thousand people. The Somalians began to come here in the late 80s, shortly after the outbreak of the civil war on the African horn, when the Lutheran, and then the Catholic Churches of Minnesota, organized humanitarian projects for helping refugees. Today, a large number of NPOs, educational and cultural centers make the life of the community quite comfortable: the Somalians open cafes, small shops, work in the field of service. Almost every civilian resident of Minneapolis proudly talks about the personal contribution to the help of visitors: the Americans are benevolent to the new compatriots, even despite the series of loud, sounded throughout America of judicial anti -terrorist processes and constant news with the mention of terrorists of Somali origin.
These young men, immigrants from the Somali community of the Minnesota, left for Somali Paradise (from the Ash Shababa dossier in the Federal Court of Minnesota) , click to increase the picture
Finish - and in paradise
In July 2013, it became known about the murder of one of the first people living in the United States from Somali involved in the Islamist movement of Ash Shabab. His name was Abraham al-Afghani, and he wore the title of Emir “Small (International) Wing” “Ash Shababa”, which is engaged in recruiting fighters around the world. He was killed in Somalia by activists of the “large wing” of the organization - it is responsible for operations inside Somalia.
Al-Afghani, who got to America in the 80s, in the first wave of emigration, lived in Virginia. In 1988, he went to Afghanistan on Jihad against the Soviet troops and was the first to recruit young Somali men from the United States to the Ash Shabab just created. The reasons for the murder of al-Afgani are unclear, but the campaign to attract new Mujahideen with his death did not stop.
On August 7, a 40-minute video appeared on YouTube, on which three young Somalians, members of Ash Shabab, who are apparently in a military camp, are advertised in English as the best place on Earth. " “We came here for the sake of Allah, if you only knew, guys, how much pleasure we have here, this is a real Disneyland, you must come here and join us!” -This text is pronounced in the video by the Somalis from Minneapolis Troy Castigiger, who died in 2009-evidence that the video is quite old, but for some reason posted it only this year. A picture of the airport of Minneapolis, the name of the college from Minnesota, a university campus is also placed in the video sequence.
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“If you only knew, guys, how many pleasions are in Somalia, this is a real Disneyland, you must come here and join us!”
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It is with recruiting that the loud processes are connected, which in 2012 shocked all of America. Then ten members of the Somali diaspora were sentenced to different terms in Minnesota. “In addition to these ten accusations of relations with ASh-Shabab, thirteen other US citizens who are on the run are in court, and it is one thing in court-for perjury regarding the collection of funds for militants,” said Federal Judge John Toym, in a conversation with The New Times, the head of the Commission on the release of documents related to the murder of John Kennedy. It was the totem who brought to the Somalians three of the ten convictions.
Not only the dead al-Afghani recruited the young Somalians living in America. The same was the same was done by the 46-year-old Mohammed Said Omar, whom Judge Totem sentenced to 12 years in prison on October 19, 2012. Omar worked in conjunction with two friends, each of them had his own function: one introduced the Somalians to those who were about to go to Africa to Jihad, the second reported a certain uncle, who lived in Somalia, who, they say, would accept and help new fighters, the third theatrically quoted the chosen suras of the Qur'an about combat battles.
Omar was extremely charismatic, painted pictures of battles with Ethiopian invaders (Ethiopia took part in the Civil War in Somalia in 2006-2009), talked about “paradise, where the warriors who fell in the fight against the wrong ones,” asked to keep all the conversations and plans in secret. According to American special services, on the account of Omar more than 20 people transported from the United States to the African horn. He was directly engaged in the organization of trips: he bought tickets to both ends to avoid suspicion; If the case concerned students of schools, helped them deceive their parents and get passports to travel to a historical homeland.
The materials of the Omar case provide testimonies of witnesses who recall that among the young Americans of Somali origin, not everyone was 100% confident in their combat mission. So, the 26-year-old Ahmed Shirva really wanted to finish his studies and reacted completely reluctantly to join the Ash Shabab. Omar managed to get him. In October 2008, Shirva blew himself up in a car in the Somali city of Hargais, where the UN mission was located, killing 20 people. This was the first officially recorded terrorist attack to which the Somalian from Minnesota was related.
In July 2010, two terrorists recruited by Omar blew themselves up in Uganda (76 victims), in May 2011, another in Somalia (then three soldiers of the African Union were killed).
Different voices
The last week, representatives of the Somali community and religious leaders of the Minnesota expressed the condolences of Kenya and the Kenyan diaspora in America. At the same time, they emphasized that most of them expected permission to enter America (as refugees) in Kenya. “During the events in Nairobi, two communities-Somali and Kenyskaya-were united in their condemnation of the terrorist attack, they were generally united, and I was shocked by this,” Laura Alland, an architect from St. Polish in a conversation with The New Times. She is not surprising that some “isolated in cultural and educational planes, young people from the Somali diaspora are trying to find luck or money somewhere else, for example, in“ Ash Shababa ”:“ This does not change my attitude towards the Somalians as a whole, I am glad that it is in the Minneapolis and Saint-Great Somali Community in America, this is making our state more diverse. "
None of the local residents surveyed by The New Times said that after what happened in Nairobi he would stop helping the Somali community or somehow change their attitude towards immigrants. “Those several guys whom Ash Shabab was able to recruit in our city do not represent 80 thousand Somalians,” said Dag Stone, a media consultant from Minneapolis. “I know a lot of good interns, excellent Sosomalian workers, we are happy with them, and we will not stop helping them because of the attack in Nairobi.”
However, Judge John Totem looks at things differently: “Minnesota works a lot and is hard to adapt immigrants. The attack in Nairobi can affect public opinion regarding the Somali community, although it is important, of course, how events will develop. ” The totem is sure: if there are no more terrorist attacks if the number of young people from Minnesota is not increasing, the other Somali immigrants recruited by the Minnesota will not increase. “However, we know that“ al-Shabab ”is already working closely with al-Qaeda, and the closer this spike will be, the more misunderstanding will be here in Minnesota,” the judge concludes. In October, the next ceremony of naturalization will be held at the Landmark Center of St. Pola. Again, dozens of Somalians will receive American passports and sing God Blas America. In essence, it depends on them whether the Ash Shabab will continue to receive replenishment from behind the ocean.
The Ash Shabab group (the full name of Xarakada Mujaahidiinta Al-Shabaab, that is, the movement of young Mujahideen) formed in 2004 as a youth Islamic (Salafi) movement, transformed two years later into the radical wing of the Union of Islamic Courts (SIS). Since 2007, after the Ethiopian troops and the defeats of the SIS, the Ash Shabab was actively involved in the armed struggle against the “invaders” and the Provisional Federal Government (VFP), receiving financial and military assistance from Eritrea, Yemen, Egypt, and the Gulf countries. Then, the “enemies” of the group became the amis units, a peacekeeping mission under the mandate of the African Union. By 2011, Ash Shabab detachments were knocked out of all large cities, not without the participation of the Kenyan army. Ash-Shabab militants were accused of kidnapping foreigners in Kenya, as well as in numerous terrorist attacks both in Somalia and beyond. Messages about the relations of Ash Shababa with Al-Qaeda appeared back in 2008, but Ahmed Abdi, the leader of the group, announced their official association only in February 2012.
Photo: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters