January 09, 2013

Analysis of Omar Hamammi's Last Messages

I've been busy and I've not had time to really read and study Omar Hammami's last release, although we did run the raw data and some Googlish translations of the documents.


Selected Wisdom has a breakdown and some thoughts here.

Previously, Omar had posted his biography, in english, which was ignored by the e-jihadi crowd. This time he wrote two Arabic documents, which detail his trials and tribulations in Somalia. I’m assuming he chose Arabic to make sure word got out in the jihadi crowd. While I don’t read Arabic, I’ve gone through the Google translate and talked to a knowledgeable scholar, Dr. Will McCants, about what I think are key passages.
Connections between al Shabaab and al Qaeda in Yemen

Desire to conduct external operations in Kenya

Fazul’s return to Somalia, his conflict with Godane and resulting death

Conflicts between local Somali clan fighters (Ansar) and foreign fighters (Muhajir)

Hammami overstepped with Godane and got punished

Disastrous merger between al Shabaab and al Qaeda

Omar asserts that Godane killed off al Qaeda members and foreign fighters such as abu Talha, Fazul, Sudani and detained other foreign fighters

Read the rest.

By Howie at 12:52 PM | Comments |