Two New Somali-Linked Indictments Issued

An indictment was unsealed in New York Monday charging 35-year-old Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed with providing material support to the Somali Islamist group Al-Shabaab. The indictment also charged Ahmed with receiving military training from the group and two counts of conspiracy. Ahmed was arrested in Nigeria on Saturday and then brought to the U.S.

According to the indictment, Ahmed traveled to Al-Shabaab paramilitary camps in Somalia in April 2009 to receive jihad training, including training on bomb construction and detonation. It also alleges that Ahmed personally gave Al-Shabaab, a U.S. designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), $4,088 in February 2008. Ahmed will plead not guilty at a hearing Tuesday, says his lawyer Sabrina Shroff.

The government's charges against Ahmed come shortly after last week's indictment of a Somali citizen tied to different Al-Qaeda linked Somali Islamist organization, Al-Ittihad Al-Islami (AIAI).

Ahmed Muhammed Dhakane is charged with two counts of making false statements to federal authorities. The first count alleges that Dhakane omitted his involvement with Somali commercial enterprise Al-Barakat and AIAI, both listed as Specially Designated Terrorist entities, on his 2008 application for asylum.

According to a second count, Dhakane also lied about how he got into United States. The indictment alleges that he did not disclose that he "participated in and later ran a large-scale human smuggling enterprise out of Brazil." The U.S. government says the enterprise is responsible for smuggling hundreds of AIAI affiliated Somalis and other East Africans into the United States.

The two cases add to a slew of recent U.S. government prosecutions linked to Somali Islamist terror. Last year at least 14 people were charged in federal cases related to Al-Shabaab recruitment in America.

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