Sunday, October 14, 2012
A Minnesota man who traveled to Somalia to enlist in the terrorist group al-Shabab has identified the person he says first attempted to persuade him to join up.
Salah Osman Ahmed is testifying in the federal trial in Minneapolis of Mahamud Said (mah-hah-MOOD' sy-EED') Omar, who is accused of helping Americans travel to Somalia.
The trial is shedding light on the way recruiting worked. Ahmed named Abdiweli Yassin Isse (EE'-say) as an early recruiting leader. Ahmed says Isse is one of the people who first began talking in 2007 about traveling to Somalia, and how Americans would go to paradise if they fought Ethiopian soldiers seen by many Somalis as invaders.
Authorities say more than 20 young men have gone to Somalia from Minnesota, and at least six have died.