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| Alabama-born Omar Hamami — better known as Al-Amriki |
An American extremist in Somalia is fighting former
comrades in the Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgent group, in what he says may be
his final stand, he writes.
Alabama-born Omar Hamami — better known as Al-Amriki or
“the American” — once fought alongside the hardline Shebab in Somalia, but last
year fell out with the fighters who now want to kill him.
He is also wanted by the US government, who have placed a
$5 million bounty on his head and is listed on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists
list.
“We were forced to fight in self defence and killed three
and wounded others,” he wrote in a message on Twitter, posted late Monday.
“May not find another chance to Tweet but just remember
what we said and what we stood for. God kept me alive to deliver the message to
the ummah (community).”
Hamami, 28, moved to Somalia in 2006 and began to work
for Shebab recruiting young trainees through his English-language rap songs and
videos, but later split from the main wing of the Shebab.
“They raided our houses and took our stuff, and said they
found condoms, alcohol, and documents,” he added, writing from an undisclosed
location in Somalia. “Their goal is to kill us regardless of reason.”
Last week he claimed a Shebab gunmen tried to assassinate
him while he was drinking tea in a cafe, posting a photograph of himself
dripping with blood from where he said the pistol bullet grazed his throat.
“They are sending forces from multiple directions,” he
wrote last week. “We are few but might get back up.”
Born in 1984 to a Syrian Muslim father and a white
Protestant mother, Hamami was raised as a Christian but began to feel estranged
from his upbringing as teenager before moving to Somalia.
“‘I’m on a mission from God’, minus the blues music”, he
wrote last week, an apparent reference to the 1980 Blues Brothers film, an
American musical comedy.
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