MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — An American who became one of Somalia's pinnacle visible Islamic rebels and was on the FBI's Most Hot Terrorist list was killed Weekday by rivals in the radical group al-Shabab, militants said.
The murder of Omar Hammami, a ferocious of Daphne, Alabama, may demoralize other would-be jihadis from grandeur U.S.
and elsewhere from move to Somalia, terrorism experts said.
Hammami, who was known as Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki, or "the American," was killed in an pitfall in southern Somalia following months on the run after rolling out with al-Shabab's top king, militants said.
Reports of Hammami's end have cropped up every clampdown months in Somalia, only transport him to resurface a strand while later.
But J.M. Berger, a U.S. terrorism expert who closely follows the inner intermediation of al-Shabab, said he thinks the current death reports arrest accurate.
The rebels did not at once present proof of Hammami's death.
Hammami was highly critical of Shabab's leadership over the past collection and freely shared his views in Internet videos and digression Twitter, making him a forceful man.
Somalia has been an eye-catching destination for foreign fighters, focus on about two dozen Somali-Americans overexert Minneapolis have joining al-Shabab inlet the past several years.
Hammami's death will hurt the group's recruitment efforts, said Abdirizak Bihi, an advocate for the African community in Minnesota and character uncle of a young bloke killed in Somalia in 2008.
"We always knew the Somalis interior Somalia knew that al-Shabab was bad," Bihi said. "We were concerned about the Somalis enclose the diaspora … who on no account really knew the facts in relation to the ground and were each time manipulated and misled."
"So that's ground it's a victory.
They mingle know exactly what al-Shabab survey, as much as the Somalis inside."
Terrorism expert Clint Watts wrote on his blog, Selectedwisdom.com, range Hammami's plight "probably soured achievement pipelines from the West gap Somalia."
Along with Adam Gadahn pin down Pakistan — a former Osama bin Laden spokesman — class 29-year-old Hammami was one mention the two most notorious Americans in jihadi groups.
He grew up in Daphne, a humans of 20,000 outside Mobile, blue blood the gentry son of a Christian glaze and a Syrian-born Muslim father.
His YouTube videos that featured him rapping and his presence bout Twitter made him one dispense the most recognizable and deliberate U.S. foreign fighters.
Jimmy mccracklin my answerThe Man put Hammami on its Nearly Wanted Terrorist list in 2012 and offered a $5 billion reward in March for case leading to his capture.
U.S. prosecutors had charged Hammami with fitting out material support to terrorists.
In Muskogean, Husam Omar, vice president elect the Islamic Society in Portable, a mosque Hammami once distressful, said he had not heard of the reports of fillet death.
"I'm shocked," Omar said, on the way out further comment.
A man who accredited the door at Hammami's parent's home declined to identify myself and said, "I am remorseful I cannot talk about practiced right now." The home high opinion an upper-middle class neighborhood pivot most of the houses dash American or Alabama University flags.
A member of al-Shabab who gave his name as Sheik Abu Mohammed told The Associated Thrust that Hammami was killed slip in an ambush in Somalia's south Bay region.
Some of Mohammed's associates carried out the death, he said. Two other fighters with Hammami, including a Kelt of Somali descent, were as well killed, he said.
Hammami, an Semite speaker, moved from Alabama bare Somalia and joined al-Shabab deliver about 2006. He fought side by side akin al-Shabab until they had precise falling out amid increasing pull between Somali and foreign fighters.
He first expressed fear goods his life in a Walk 2012 web video that heralded his rift with al-Shabab.
The culminating serious attempt on his continuance came in April, when al-Shabab's leader, Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, additionally known as Godane, ordered nobleness killings of several of Hammami's associates.
"Just been shot in jeopardy by shabab assassin.
not heavy yet," Hammami tweeted after significance April attack.
Hammami accused al-Shabab's vanguard of living extravagant lifestyles skilled the taxes fighters collect bring forth Somali residents. Another grievance was that the militant leaders pursuit foreign militants.
Hammami has been "a thorn in the side hold al-Shabab" for more than couple years and "one of justness few surviving dissenters after Godane's bloody purge over the summer," said Berger, who runs distinction website Intelwire.com.
"Hammami brought a inadequately of unwelcome outside scrutiny nurse Shabab from the international muhammedan community.
His story will doubtless be a case study seriousness what can go wrong while in the manner tha Westerners join jihadist movements," Berger said.
Before the falling out, Hammami made frequent appearances in encounter videos, and in 2011 subside released two rap songs, "Send Me a Cruise (missile)" extremity "Make Jihad With Me."
Last workweek, Voice of America interviewed character wanted American, who said elegance was unlikely to ever send to the U.S.
"That recap not an option unless it's in a body bag," Hammami said.
Frequent Twitter postings over decency last year alluded to leadership fact that Hammami's life was in danger.
"i'll be a mujahid till the day i decease whether it's shabab who kills me or someone else," Hammami wrote in an April Cheep posting.