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UP FRONTWednesday 9 December

Special Report: Report: American, US resident
fighters defect from al-Shabab
Washington, Baghdad on different pages
ABDI GULED
in the fight against Islamic State militants Associated Press
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — The defections of two
SUSANNAH GEORGE Turkish troops deploying A similar dynamic was on fighters, an American and a U.S. resident, from Soma-
Associated Press to a base near the Islamic display when U.S. Defense lia’s Islamic extremist rebels highlight tensions within
BAGHDAD (AP) — A series State-held city of Mosul Secretary Ash Carter re- al-Shabab over whether it should remain affiliated
of political spats in Bagh- sparked outrage in Bagh- cently said the U.S. mili- to al-Qaida or switch allegiance to the Islamic State
dad over the past week dad. Despite Turkey’s insis- tary would deploy a new group, an al-Shabab commander said Tuesday.
surrounding foreign forces tence that the troops were special operations force Foreign fighters are being alienated and feel trapped
on Iraqi soil have exposed part of a training mission to Iraq, only to have the in Somalia over suspicions that they are plotting to
the increasing weakness of coordinated with top Iraqi proposal shot down by al- switch allegiance to the Islamic State group fighting
Iraq’s prime minister and officials, al-Abadi said late Abadi. in Syria and Iraq, Abu Mohammed, a military com-
a disconnect between Sunday that if Turkey did “Iraq does not need foreign mander with Al-Shabab told The Associated Press. The
Washington and Baghdad not withdraw its troops ground forces and the Iraqi “ambitions” by some foreign fighters in al-Shabab to
in the fight against the Is- within 48 hours Iraq would government is committed join the Islamic State group had led to them to be iso-
lamic State group. bring the matter to the U.N. not to allow the presence lated within the Somali group and even face death
at the hands of their erstwhile comrades-in-arms.
A Kurdish fighter walks past a destroyed building in the town of Sinjar, after they took it from the An American who had been fighting with al-Shabab
Islamic State group in a joint operation with the coalition forces. A series of political spats that left the rebels and was arrested by Somalia’s secu-
erupted in Baghdad over the past week surrounding foreign forces on Iraqi soil have exposed the rity forces on Monday. Abdimalik Jones, who said he
increasing weakness of Iraq’s central government and a growing disconnect between Washing- is from San Diego, was arrested in the southern port
ton and Baghdad in the U.S.-led coalition’s fight against the Islamic State group. of Barawe, said African Union spokesman Col. Paul
Njuguna.
(AP Photo/Bram Janssen) Jones claimed he fled al-Shabab because of rifts
within the group, said an official with Somali security
As Iraq struggles to push IS Security Council. of any ground force on forces who insisted on anonymity because he is not
out of the vast areas still un- A few hundred Turkish Iraqi land,” the prime minis- authorized to speak to the press. Jones is missing the
der the extremists’ control, troops have been present ter said in a statement. index finger of his right hand, said the official.
it has been caught in a tug- in Iraq for months, working Hadi al-Amiri, the head of Separately an American resident, a Minnesota man
of-war between Iran, which to train Kurdish peshmerga the Badr Organization, one named Mohamed Abdullahi Hassan who joined al-
exerts great influence over fighters and Sunni militia- of Iraq’s most powerful Ira- Shabab in Somalia more than seven years ago, sur-
the Shiite-led government men. nian-backed Shiite militias, rendered to Somalia’s federal government on Nov.
and provides crucial sup- Their presence, while not went a step further, saying 6, the U.S. State Department said in an email to the
port to its ground forces, publicly advertised, ap- any U.S. base in Iraq would AP. Hassan was a lawful permanent resident of the
and the U.S.-led coalition, pears to have been done be considered a “target.” U.S. but not an American citizen.
which is providing vital air in coordination with both There are already some Hassan had been fighting with al-Shabab but re-
support. Baghdad and the semi-au- 3,500 U.S. troops in Iraq on cently went online to urge others to carry out vio-
As Iraq’s Prime Minister tonomous Kurdish regional a training and support mis- lence on behalf of IS. He was among those wanted
Haider al-Abadi has strug- government in northern sion to help Iraqi forces bat- by the FBI for allegedly providing material support to
gled to please both sides, Iraq. tle the IS group. Al-Abadi’s al-Shabab, and he faces several terrorism charges in
he has come to be seen The uproar may have been spokesman later walked the United States.
by many as weak and in- driven in part by Iran, which back the prime minister’s State Department spokeswoman Pooja Jhunjhunwa-
decisive, further undermin- is at loggerheads with Tur- comments, saying the gov- la said Hassan is in the custody of the Somali National
ing efforts to defeat the key over Syria’s civil war. ernment had requested Intelligence and Security Agency in Mogadishu. She
extremists. The challenge Iran is a key ally of Syrian more overflights, weapons said the U.S. is discussing the case with the Somali
he faces was thrown into President Bashar Assad, and equipment. Federal Government, but noted that the U.S. does
sharp relief by two recent while Turkey is a leading “There will be special forc- not have an extradition agreement with Somalia.
controversies over foreign supporter of the rebels es on board the aircraft,” In a phone interview Tuesday with Voice of America,
forces. fighting to overthrow him, the spokesman, Saad al- Hassan said he has no intention of returning to Amer-
Exaggerated media re- which both Iran and Syria Hadithi, told The Associat- ica.
ports in recent days of view as “terrorists.” ed Press.q “Any crimes that I have committed, if there is any, it
is done over here in Somalia,” he told Voice of Amer-
ica. “If I am to be going to court, it is going to be in
Somalia not in America.”
Hassan, who was speaking from prison, said he wasn’t
tied to the Islamic State group. “I am not part of ISIS
and I have nothing to do with any other group or any
other jihadi movement,” he said.
Hassan said he joined al-Shabab to help defend
against the Ethiopian intervention in Somalia, but
he left the group in 2013 “because of the oppres-
sion that they are doing on the people, the way they
are killing people, and the imprisonment of innocent
people and the torture without no evidence at all.”
He said that last month, al-Shabab members raided
his home and terrorized his family, Voice of America
reported. He said that he escaped, but was later ar-
rested by government forces.
The defections of Hassan and Jones show tensions
within al-Shabab, according to Mohammed.q