Somali-jihad kindergarten
Mogadishu, 16 April (AKI) – Al-Qaeda recruiters are targeting children and aiming to make Somali suicide bombing a multi-generational family affair.
A new recruitment video by Al-Shabaab, the Somalia-based Al-Qaeda branch that operates in the Horn of Africa, opens with an image of a child playing with a toy gun.
He’s not just any boy, but the son of the bomber who almost assassinated former Somali president Abdullah Yusuf when he blew himself up on 11 October 2007 at the parliament in the southern city of Baidoa. The attack is celebrated by Al-Shabab as part of an operation that allowed the terror group to expand in Somalia.
A message’s meaning isn’t easily lost when in the video an image of the toddler and deceased father are placed side-by-side while a voice in Arabic sings praises of the Baidoa attack.
“After four years since the Baidoa attack,” say Al-Shabab leader Mukhtar Abu az-Zubair, “it’s still possible to see the consequences. That operation laid the foundation to conquer the city. This is because our road to victory is paved with the blood of martyrs past and martyrs of the future.”
“Unfortunately many children are trained by Al-Shabab, said Hasan Osman, director of Radio Shabelle, a popular radio station in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI). “Militant Islam began concentrating on recruiting children into combat when attacks became bolder and they decided to advance into the capital.”