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Image of a Shabaab fighter from the terror group’s website. |
Shabaab, al Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia, continues to use outsiders to conduct suicide attacks. The Dec. 3 suicide attack during the graduation ceremony for medical students was carried out by a Dane. The attack killed three Somali ministers as well as a doctor and a number of medical students. From The Kopenhagen Post:
Close friends have confirmed Somali police’s identification of the 24-year-old man from pictures taken after the blast, which devastated a hotel ceremony for newly educated doctors.
The suspect lived 20 years in Denmark, growing up in the city district of Brønshøj and later living in the suburb of Rødovre.
Danish intelligence service PET has not released the name of the man, nor has it yet made a positive identification. But yesterday the agency reported that the bomber was ‘a Somali citizen who had residence in Denmark’.
But after being shown pictures of the man’s body by PET, Abdirashid Nur Artan said he was certain the bomber was his childhood friend.
‘I’m unfortunately convinced it’s my friend in the photos,’ said Artan. ‘Several of our other friends are saying the same thing. It’s scary and I almost can’t believe it.’
Two Somali-Americans are known to have carried out suicide attacks in Somalia. In October 2008, 27-year-old Shirwa Ahmed killed 29 Somalis in a suicide bombing at a United Nations checkpoint in in Northern Somalia. In September 2009, another American suicide bomber killed the deputy military commander for the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and 20 others.
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