Jihadist releases new photos of American Shabaab leader

Omar-Hammami-Shabaab-SITE.jpg

A jihadist on the Ansar al-Mujahideen English Forum posted two images of Omar Hammami, the American citizen who is also known as Abu Mansoor al Amriki. Hammami serves as a Shabaab military commander and propagandist. In July, the US added him to the list of specially designated global terrorists.

The SITE Intelligence Group, which has provided the photos above, said that “Hammami appears in the pictures with two unidentified men.” However, we believe that both men in the photos are the same person. In both pictures, the person is wearing the same shirt, and the facial features appear to be the same.

The identity of the Shabaab fighter seen with Hammami is not known, but one US intelligence official who tracks Shabaab told The The Long War Journal that the individual shown may be Abu Omar, a Shabaab fighter with a British accent (he claims to be British) and who describes himself as an aid worker in this interview with The Guardian, from Nov. 1. Since Abu Omar’s face was covered in the interview, it is impossible to confirm at this point whether he is the person pictured with Hammami in the photos above.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

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1 Comment

  • El Marco says:

    Omar! good to see you are still alive and well. That means I may yet get an opportunity to hunt you down and smoke you.

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