Somalia's Shebab proclaim allegiance to bin Laden
Radical Islamist Shebab members ride horses in Mogadishu where
they led a big group prayer on September 20, 2009 as they
celebrate the Eid-al-Fitr
22 September, 2009
NAIROBI (AFP) – Somalia's Shebab group has proclaimed its allegiance to Osama bin Laden in a video documentary, the latest evidence of Al Qaeda's growing ideological influence among Somali Islamists.
The authenticity of the 48-minute film -- released for the Eid al-Fitr feast marking the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan -- was confirmed by a Shebab official in Mogadishu.
Entitled "Labaik ya Osama" (At your service, Osama), the video was posted on Islamist Internet forums in recent days and is presented as a "gift to the lions of Tawheed (belief in the oneness of Allah) and the Muslims everywhere."
Shebab fighters on Monday distributed the video in several Mogadishu neighbourhoods, including in Suqaholaha, where a public screening was also organised following the Eid prayers.
The group is fighting to overthrow a fragile western-backed transitional government in the Horn of Africa country.
The video opens with an artistic animation of whirling flower tendrils and text in English and Arabic paying tribute to the mujahideen (holy warriors) in Palestine and the Arabian peninsula, as well as the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"Receive glad tidings and rejoice, and we are awaiting your guidance in this advance stage of jihad," the voice of top Shebab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane (also known as Abu Zubayr) tells bin Laden in the video.
The slick production marks a new level in the propaganda capabilities of the Shebab and is reminiscent of the videos made by As-Sahab -- Al Qaeda's media production company -- on Iraq and Afghanistan.
The video is a sequence of fighting scenes in the streets of Mogadishu and elsewhere, training sessions and news commentary lambasting the president of Somalia's transitional federal government, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
One sequence shows the young cleric -- once a top leader of the Islamic Courts, of which the Shebab was the youth and military branch -- shaking hands with a blurred out US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at an August meeting in Nairobi, under a spiteful voiced-over commentary.
Complete with booming sound effects and flaming action movie trailer graphics, the film includes typical jihadi imagery of fighters taking cover behind sand bags or spurting 12.7 mm rounds from "technicals", the trademark Somali gun-mounted pick-up, as they shout "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest).
A Shebab official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the video was aimed at "persuading people to join the jihad and give youngsters a chance to see the real life of a mujahed (holy warrior)."
Paris-based expert Dominique Thomas argued that the video demonstrated the growing influence of Al Qaeda on extremist Islamic movements in Somalia, which has plagued by almost uninterrupted civil conflict for 18 years.
"To proclaim 'Osama we are awaiting your orders' is a form of declaration of allegiance," Thomas said, adding that "the Shebab were now clearly affirming their adherence to jihadi salafism."
Experts point out that Al Qaeda's ideological forays in Somalia do not necessarily reveal an increased operational fire power on the ground.
Most of the few hundred foreign fighters reported to have flocked into Somalia in recent months are Somalis from the diaspora.
One American fighter, known as Abu Mansur al-Amriki, features in the latest video, sporting a thick black beard and long hair as he instructs a small group of masked combatants.
The Alabama-born Omar Hammami (his real name) first appeared on jihadi internet forums in March in a video where he comments on an ambush against Ethiopian troops.