Al Qaeda’s Somali franchise is sending a “friend request” and offering a one-way ticket to martyrdom to young Americans this week with a new video urging potential recruits in rhyme to catch “the next flight to Mogadishu” ABC News.
The short tape by Al-Shabaab extremists displayed an airline “boarding pass” originating from Minneapolis, where more than 24 Somali-Americans since 2008 have been recruited to join the group in East Africa, according to federal prosecutors.
Squatting amidst a gaggle of fighters in woodland camouflage brandishing Kalashnikov rifles and with their faces swathed in kaffiyeh scarves, an unidentified militant speaking what appeared to be American English read a short poem appealing to his countrymen.
“This is a message to the youth in the West; A caring brother sends you a friend request,” the speaker begins, advising that tossing a few clothes in a backpack and joining their jihad “is the smart call, just like the brothers in the Westgate Mall.”
Last September, a small band of al-Shabab terrorists entered the upscale Westgate Mall frequented by westerners in Nairobi, Kenya, and began killing shoppers.
“You’d make a fine troop,” the American al-Shabab fighter concluded. “So, next flight to Mogadishu, what’s missing is you.”
Al-Shabab leader Mukhtar Ali Zubeyr, known as “Godane,” has eliminated rivals within the group and, after finally being designated as an official franchise of al Qaeda in 2012 by al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, wants his foreign fighters “to stay relevant,” said one Africa expert.
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