[RadioShabelle] A Kenyan who rose through al-Shabaab
...  an Islamic infestation centering on Somalia...
ranks to become the poster boy for the terrorist organization is on the run after falling out with other commanders who want him executed.
Ahmed Iman alias Kimanthi, who appeared in numerous al-Shabaab propaganda videos taunting Kenyan troops fighting in Somalia, the group’s stronghold, is now seeking to surrender to Kenyan forces and get amnesty, the Nation has learnt.
Until the row, he was close to the current al-Shabaab supremo Ahmed Diriye and Mahad Karate, also known as Abdirahim Mohammed Warsame, who commanded Shabaab’s Amniyat, its intelligence wing, when button men stormed Garissa University College and killed 147 students in April 2015.
In the video clips, which are unavailable after they were pulled down by YouTube, Iman says the killings were carried out to avenge the killing of radical Moslem holy mans.
In those videos, he named the holy mans as Aboud Rogo, Samir Khan and Sheikh Abubakar Shariff alias Makaburi.
International security sources operating in Somalia told the Nation that Iman has been the head of a group of imported muscle who together with him, are now on the run from the main group loyal to Diriye and Karate.
A number of Kenyans and other foreigners who joined al-Shabaab snuffies in Somalia have since been captured and executed.
On November 6, a 25-year-old Kenyan from Garissa was among four people who were publicly executed by the snuffies in Somalia.
Omar Adar Omar was killed by firing squad on accusations of spying for the Africa Union Mission in Somalia, which comprises the Kenya Defence Forces.
The fall-out is further complicated after the emergence of a faction that has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
in Syria, while Diriye’s group maintains its formal partnership with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
The Nation has further learnt that Iman, in a bid to escape from Somalia, has evaded several dragnets to capture him.
Al-Shabaab is well known for executing bully boyz within its own ranks whenever there is a fallout.
The latest developments are a repeat of what happened to Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who was killed in a set up laid by Godane Ahmed Abdi Godane alias Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, who was Diriye’s predecessor.
Godane was later killed in a joint operation by US and KDF in Somalia.
Besides assuming the role of commander of imported muscle in Somalia, Iman also has a great influence in Jaish Ayman, another al-Shabaab faction operating in Boni Forest which spreads across the Kenya-Somalia border in Lamu County.
Furthermore, Iman is also said to be getting foreign funding directly, further angering indigenous Somali commanders, the sources also said.
A 2016 security report published by the Nation, revealed that Iman and accomplices in Nairobi collected millions of shillings every year by renting shops and kiosks in Umoja and Majengo, and the money is smuggled to Somalia to fund terrorism activities.
In one al-Shabaab propaganda video, he was seen clad in KDF uniform, holding a walkie-talkie and an M-16 rifle, which he claimed was one of the arms looted from El-Adde Forward Operating Base, which was overran by the snuffies in January 2016.
Besides Kenya, whose soldiers are operating in southern Somalia, al-Shabaab is also being fought by the US and other countries in Amisom, including Æthiopia, Uganda, Burundi and Djibouti. |
...... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
...
"We will avenge the death of our people, however long it takes. You have the watches, we have the time,"
...... the personification of Somali state failure...
...... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
...
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century...
Al-Shabaab declared its allegiance to Al-Qaeda in 2009 under former leader 
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government is offering new rewards for information on the whereabouts of six leaders of the Somali militant group al-Shabab.