FBI may use jihadist video to solve Somali-American terror case

Washington, Apr 3 (ANI): A 30-minute video posted this week on a jihadist Web site may be used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to solve a terror-related case involving Somali-Americans.

According to Fox News, the FBI has been investigating at least 20 Somali-American men from the Minneapolis area and elsewhere in the United States who traveled to war-torn Somalia to join an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group known as al-Shabaab.

One top-ranking official said it's "clear" that the Internet played a role in radicalizing and recruiting these young men.

The video is a highly polished production, featuring anti-American hip-hop and sporadic images of Osama bin Laden. In much of the video, a man dubbed "The American" purportedly leads a group of al-Shabaab militants in an ambush of Ethiopian forces, which oppose an Islamic state and have backed the new Somali government.

The Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has identified "The American" as Abu Mansur al-Amriki, and described the video as a "clear appeal to foreign youth, especially in English-speaking countries, to join the jihad in Somalia."

The FBI investigation into how young American men were recruited to join al-Shabaab in Somalia is active in Columbus, Ohio; Cincinnati, Ohio; Boston; Seattle; and San Diego, according to testimony from counter-terrorism officials and others at the Senate hearing last month.

But reports from around the world suggest young Muslims from other Western countries, namely Canada, Australia and England, are also being recruited to join the fight in Somalia.

U.S. officials declined to comment specifically on whether officials from those countries have been working with the FBI. (ANI)