Norwegian authorities looking for Westgate massacre suspect

Ikrima-Norway.jpg

Ikrima, whose face is blurred, is pictured with a Norwegian woman who assisted him while in country. Image from TV2.

The Norwegian intelligence agency PST today announced the launch of an investigation into reports that a Norwegian was involved in the Shabaab massacre at the Westgate Mall in Kenya. The suspect is a Norwegian of Somali origin, and may be an acquaintance of the al Qaeda affiliate’s external operations chief, Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulkadir, also known as Ikrima.

According to the BBC, the PST has dispatched investigators to Kenya to determine the extent of the Norwegian suspect’s involvement and to help prevent new terror threats. The inquiry also aims to see if the suspect is linked to Shabaab. PST section leader Jan Glent also said he could not rule out “more Norway-linked suspects,” Reuters reported.

The PST statement did not identify the suspect by name, but said he was a Norwegian citizen who had allegedly been involved in the planning and execution of the attack on Nairobi’s Westgate Mall last month. Over 62 people were killed in the four-day siege, which has been claimed by Shabaab, al Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia.

Norwegian press reports indicate that Shabaab external operations chief Ikrima spent time in Norway several years ago. He arrived in 2004 and applied for asylum there. Norway’s TV2 said he had stayed “at a reception center in Moelv in Hedmark from 2004” and for several years after that.

Hamisi Zahidi, a fellow asylum seeker who knew Ikrima at the time, told the Norwegian news outlet that Ikrima disliked Norwegians and Norwegian culture, and was known to be involved in terrorist recruitment in Norway and elsewhere. While in Norway, Ikrima lived in the Oslo area but also visited Somalia, TV2 said. Ikrima departed Norway in 2008 without having received a decision on his asylum application.

The US failed to capture Ikrima in a raid in Somalia on Oct. 5, but reportedly two Shabaab operatives during the raid, including a “Swedish Somali” said to be Abdi Qadar. The Department of Defense said that Ikrima is “a top commander in the terrorist group al-Shabaab, an al Qaeda affiliate,” who had been “closely associated” with two deceased senior al Qaeda and Shabaab leaders, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed and Saleh al Saleh Nabhan.

Also on Oct. 5, Kenya named four of the Westgate Mall attackers: Abu Baara al-Sudani, a Sudanese; Omar Nabhan, a Kenyan; Khattab al-Kene, thought to be a Somali; and Umayr, whose surname and nationality were not disclosed. Shabaab has been known to use non-Somalis for attacks in the past, including American suicide bombers.

The subject of the investigation is a Somali Norwegian who holds a Norwegian passport, according to an NRK report, and is not Ikrima.

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8 Comments

  • Jeff Edelman says:

    How many ikrimas are there in Norway? How many ikrimas are there in Dearborn? How many ikrimas are there in Minneapolis? The picture above? That’s a picture of taqqiya.

  • g says:

    Why is his face blurred?

  • Rens says:

    There as many ikrimas in Western countries as the left in those countries called by their various names (Democrat, Labour, …) wish to allow.

  • Dani says:

    Yes, this is a classic case of left wing helper-syndrome living with the terrorist. This sort of thing happens all the time in the EU. In the late nineties a friend of mine was working as a civil servant and one of his jobs was asylum decision’s of refugee’s. He was working with the German FBI, state secret police, federal secret police, all were there to watch and decide over a North African “asylum” seeker who had married a brain washed German Muslim convert. Once married he could hardly be deported. This man had fought in Bosnia and he was photographed holding the severed heads of Serbs and other stuff. The man’s local helper syndrome group had taken up his case. The vicar, the Green MP, the church group, the Left etc. For operational reason’s this man was allowed to stay. I think exposing sources in a trail against him would have been counterproductive. So he stayed. The German police in these meetings called the activists the “Gutmenschen”. I think the German Interior Ministry is watching an estimated 80.000 Muslim’s who are considered to be “able to use violence”.

  • . says:

    I wonder what the woman in the photo has to say about Ikrima now.

  • wilmington-burke says:

    “I wonder what the woman in the photo has to say about Ikrima now.”
    She must be saying: ‘What a deceiver!’

  • wilmington-burke says:

    “I wonder what the woman in the photo has to say about Ikrima now.”
    She must be saying: ‘What a deceiver!’

  • port_blair says:

    This is a response to the previous postings by @Dani and @Rens.
    Whatever has happened with the Islamization of
    Western Europe is a consequence of applying Western
    Liberal thought to a culture where such thought is
    Anathema.
    Can the German government really keep track
    of the e-mails and activities of say 100K Islamic men.
    One day they will miss the signs- in fact this process
    is ongoing.
    Sooner or later Germans and Scandinavians societies will not be able to ignore the ever
    hostile presence in their midst. Why do German
    Universities need so many Islamic students?
    Look at KTH, Look at Universitaet Berlin-
    can they not get PhD students who are non-Muslims.
    A political challenge necessary for the survival
    of European society. You have my support
    as a Judeo Christian. But I feel
    Britain cannot be saved- so leave them.
    It is better to save Munich rather than Londondistan.
    It would cause me a lot of anger if the Alter peter
    were razed down to build a Islamic centre.

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