News from Bardere town located in south western Somalia region of Gedo confirm that armed men from Alshabab fighters killed to western foreigners who fought along them for years.
American born Omar Hamami also known as Abu Mansur Al-Amriki, British born Usama Al Biridani and unidentified Somali who provided security for the foreigners have been killed in a shootout in Al Bate village near Bardere town.
A rapping jihadi from Alabama who ascended the ranks of Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked militant group and was on the FBI’s Most Wanted list with a US$5-million reward for his capture was killed Thursday in an ambush ordered by the militant group’s leader, militants said.
Omar Hammami, a native of Daphne, Alabama and former Toronto pizza deliveryman who was known as Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki, or “the American,” died in southern Somalia following several months on the run after a falling-out with al-Shabaab’s top leader, the militants said.
Reports of Hammami’s death crop up every few months in Somalia, only for him to resurface a short while later. But a U.S. terrorism expert who closely follows the inner workings of al-Shabaab says he thinks that the current reports of the death are accurate.
Alshabab who have not yet commented on the killings previously stated that they were hunting down former fighters among them Al Amriki.
Al Amriki was accused of killing a fellow shabab fighter in Rama Adde town located in Bai region.
A member of al-Shabaab who gave his name as Sheik Abu Mohammed told The Associated Press that Hammami was killed in an ambush in Somalia’s southern Bay region. Some of Mohammed’s associates carried out the killing, he said.
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, a community of 20,000 outside Mobile, the son of a Christian mother and a Syrian-born Muslim father.
His YouTube videos that featured him rapping and his presence on Twitter made him one of the most recognizable and studied U.S. foreign fighters. The U.S. put Hammami on its Most Wanted terrorist list in March and offered a US$5-million reward for information leading to his capture.
