'The American' leading al Qaeda in Somalia awaits terrorism charges back home

Washington, Sep 5 (ANI): The man who grew up in Daphne, Alabama, as Omar Hammami, but is now reported to be a member of al Qaeda-linked Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab under the name Abu Mansour al-Amriki, told a school newspaper after 9/11 attacks that it was "difficult to believe a Muslim could have done this".

According to FOX News, eight years later he is professing to launch attacks himself and calling on others to join the fight, as terror-related charges await him at home in Alabama.

Abu Mansour al-Amriki or "The American" has become one of the most recognizable and outspoken voices of terrorist propaganda, the report said.

He has been in war-torn Somalia for several years, fighting the secular government there with a group known as al-Shabaab, which has ties to Al Qaeda and was labeled a terrorist organization by the US Government last year, but only recently has he taken on a starring and jarring role in al-Shabaab's outreach efforts the report added.

The FBI has been looking into him for several years. In fact, a grand jury in Mobile, Alabama., has already indicted him on charges of providing material support to terrorists, a source said.

Al-Amriki first surfaced in October 2007, when Al-Jazeera TV aired a report about the "common goal" of al Qaeda and hard-line militants in Somalia. The report described al-Amriki as a fighter and military instructor, but he concealed his face with a cloth wrap throughout the report.

In April, he showed his face for the first time, during a highly polished, 30-minute recruitment video posted online. It featured anti-American hip-hop and sporadic images of Osama bin Laden.

In the video, he purportedly led a group of al-Shabaab militants in an ambush of pro-government forces in Somalia.

Speaking about one man killed in the fight, he said: "We need more like him, so if you can encourage more of your children and more of your neighbors, anyone around, to send people like him to this jihad, it would be a great asset for us." (ANI)