Al-Shabaab Welcomes U.S. Terror Designation, Threatens New Campaign of "Praiseworthy Terrorism"

Via CT Blog -

The NEFA Foundation has obtained and translated a new communiqué released on April 5, 2008 by the Shabaab al-Mujahideen Movement in Somalia. The statement welcomed the recognition of Shabaab as an international terrorist organization by the U.S. government: "As we are a part of the Salafi-Jihadi Islamic trend which opposes the dominance of the crusaders and the aggression led by America, we do not find it unlikely that America would add us to the names of these other honorable men, for whom we are honored to join, at the bottom of their list.” The Shabaab also announced the beginning of a new military campaign inside Somalia under the slogan "Our Terrorism is Praiseworthy": "We swear to Allah that... we will only repeat what our late Shaykh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi once said: ‘we will not compromise on our religion, we will not change the way of jihad, and will not be satisfied with compromises. Between us and the infidels, there is only the sword of Islam.'" On February 29, 2008, the U.S. State Department designated Shabaab al-Mujahideen (a.k.a. the Mujahideen Youth Movement) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. According to the U.S. State Department, the Shabaab movement includes “a number of individuals affiliated with al-Qaida. Many of its senior leaders are believed to have trained and fought with al-Qaida in Afghanistan.”

On a related note, the NEFA Foundation is also making available video footage of the "martyrdom will" of "Abu Ayyub al-Muhajir"--an English-speaking Somali national living in Europe, who recently returned to his homeland and executed a suicide car bombing in the city of Mogadishu on behalf of Shabaab al-Mujahideen. The video can be viewed on the NEFA Foundation website.