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This is an archive article published on April 13, 2011
American in Somali terror group dispels death rumour with Net rap
An American from Alabama who joined Somalias most dangerous militant group has released two new rap songs on the Internet.
Written by Associated Press
Nairobi | April 13, 2011 12:49 AM IST
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An American from Alabama who joined Somalias most dangerous militant group has released two new rap songs on the Internet,a possible indication that he is still alive after rumors circulated of his death during heavy fighting in Mogadishu.
Omar Hammami,who grew up in the middle-class town of Daphne,Alabama,joined the al-Qaeda-linked Somali militants in 2007 while he was in his early 20s,becoming the most high-profile American member of al-Shabab. He took the nom de guerre of Abu Mansur al-Amriki,or the American.
A jihadist website posted two songs over the weekend in which Hammami raps that he wants to die a martyr. He cites previous militant leaders killed by US military action like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,the former leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq,and Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan,a militant killed in a US commando raid in rural southern Somalia in September 2009.
The two songs are titled Send Me a Cruise missile and Make Jihad With Me. Last month Somalias defense minister said that intelligence reports indicated that Hammami may have been killed during an anti-insurgent offensive. But the minister said the reports werent confirmed.
Theres nothing as sweet as the taste of a tank shell, he says in one song,according to a transcription by the website The Long War Journal. It was a beautiful day,when that predator paradise missile sent me on my way.
Bill Roggio,the managing editor of The Long War Journal,said the lyrics have two aims: to recruit Western Muslims and to dispel reports of Hammamis death.
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