Omar Hammami, American Jihadi In Somalia, Tweets On Kill Attempt By Al Shabab Assassin
NAIROBI, Kenya — A most-wanted American jihadi in Somalia said Friday
that the leader of Islamic extremist rebels in Somali was starting a
civil war, just hours after an assassination attempt left the Alabama
native with a neck wound.
Omar Hammami posted on Twitter about what he labeled an assassination
attempt late Thursday as he was sitting in a tea shop. He posted four
pictures, one of which shows his face with blood on his neck and a dark
blood-stained t-shirt.
Hammami, one of the two most notorious Americans in overseas
jihadi groups, moved from Alabama to Somalia and joined al-Shabab in
about 2006. He fought alongside the al-Qaida-linked group for years
while gaining fame for posting YouTube videos of jihadi rap songs.
But Hammami had a falling out with al-Shabab and has engaged in a
public fight with the group over the last year amid signs of increasing
tension between Somalis and foreign fighters in the group. He first
expressed fear for his life in an extraordinary web video in March 2012
that publicized his rift with al-Shabab. He said he received another
death threat earlier this year that was not carried out.
"Just been shot in neck by shabab assassin. not critical yet,"
Hammami tweeted late Thursday. On Friday he wrote that the leader of
al-Shabab was sending in forces from multiple directions. "we are few
but we might get back up. abu zubayr has gone mad. he's starting a civil
war," Hammami posted.
Hammami has been a thorn in the side of al-Shabab after accusing the
group's leaders of living extravagant lifestyles with the taxes fighters
collect from Somali residents. Another Hammami grievance is that the
Somali militant leaders sideline foreign militants inside al-Shabab and
are concerned only about fighting in Somalia, not globally. Hammami's
Friday comment about a civil war could refer to violence between those
two groups.
Al-Shabab slapped Hammami publicly in a December Internet statement,
saying his video releases are the result of personal grievances that
stem from a "narcissistic pursuit of fame." The statement said al-Shabab
was morally obligated to stamp out his "obstinacy."
Hammami has enemies on all sides. The U.S. named Hammami to its Most
Wanted terrorist list in March and is offering a $5 million reward for
information leading to his capture. Al-Shabab fighters are not eligible
for the reward.
Along with Adam Gadahn in Pakistan – a former Osama bin Laden
spokesman – Hammami is one of the two most notorious Americans in jihad
groups. He grew up in Daphne, Alabama, a bedroom community of 20,000
outside Mobile. He is the son of a Christian mother and a Syrian-born
Muslim father.
Hammami
regularly chats on Twitter with a group of American terrorism experts,
conversations that are so colloquial and so infused with Americana that
many in the counter-terror field have formed a type of digital bond with
Hammami.
After Hammami publicized the assassination attempt, one of his
Twitter followers, a counter-terrorism expert from Canada, wrote that
Hammami had nine lives. Hammami responded with an apparent reference to
the movie The Blues Brothers. "'I'm on a mission from God.' minus the
blues music," Hammami wrote.
After the shooting, American terrorism expert J.M. Berger, who has a
long-running Twitter relationship with Hammami, posted that it looks
like Hammami came within a quarter-inch of death. "Perhaps it's time to
come in now," Berger tweeted.
Berger wrote on his blog, Selectedwisdom.com, that the attack proves
that Hammami should fear for his life. Berger said Hammami's anti-Shabab
social rants were annoying the militant group and he predicted conflict
between Somali militants and foreign fighters.
"If there is going to be a war inside Shabaab, I'm guessing it will happen soon," Berger wrote.
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