US Adds Al-Shabaab spokesman to Global Terrorist List

US military has been battling Al-Shabaab in Somalia for over a decade, killing the group's most senior leaders in drone strikes.

News Keydmedia Online
7 August 2021

MOGADISHU, Somalia - The United States has added two Al-Shabaab members, including the group’s spokesman Ali Dhere to its Specially Designated Global Terrorist list as Biden administration plans to send soldiers back to Somalia.

The US State Department on Friday announced that Washington imposed sanctions on five Al-Shabaab and ISIS leaders and will be blocking any ownership or interests in American properties they hold.

The three others are Mali and Mozambique-based ISIS leaders, including Bonomade Machude Omar whom Antony Blinken said led an attack on the Amarula Hotel in the town of Palma in March 2021.

Ali Mohamed Rage and Abdikadir Mohamed Abdikadir, leaders of the Al-Shabab are included in the list for their membership as an al-Qaida affiliate active group in Somalia behind the deadliest terror attacks.

Abdikadir Ikrima, according to the United States has been Al-Shabaab's chief of logistics and operations since 2019 and planned and directed attacks inside Somalia and Kenya.

The State Department said it will sanction any individual or company that deals with the terrorists, adding that the designation aims to deny them the resources to plan and carry out more lethal attacks in Africa.

US military has been battling Al-Shabaab in Somalia for over a decade, killing the group's most senior leaders in drone strikes, including Ahmed Godane in 2014 near Barawe city.

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