Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki

Omar Shafik Hammami (Arabic: عمر شفيق همّامي‎, ‘Umar Shafīq Hammāmī; 6 May 1984 - 12 September 2013), also known by the pseudonym Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki (Arabic: أبو منصور الأمريكي‎, Abū Manṣūr al-Amrīkī), was an American citizen who was a member and leader in the Somali Islamistmilitant group al-Shabaab. In November 2012, the FBI added Hammami to its "Most Wanted Terrorist" list. A federal warrant for his arrest was issued in 2007.

Hammami began to identify as Muslim in high school and dropped out of college. After going to Toronto, Canada and marrying a Somali-Canadian woman in 2004, he went with her to Egypt in 2005. He abandoned his wife and infant daughter to join Al-Shabaab in Somalia in late 2006. They divorced, and by 2009 he had married a Somali woman and had another daughter.

Hammami has served as a commander, propagandist, and recruiter. He was rumored to have been killed in March and July 2011, but later appeared again in videos. In December 2012 Al-Shabaab posted a rebuke online of what it called his "narcissistic pursuit of fame."

His death was announced again in September 2013.

Early life

Hammami was born to Shafik Hammami and Debra Hadley and grew up in Daphne, Alabama with an older sister Dena. Shafik Hammami grew up in Damascus, Syria and came to Alabama to go to college, later becoming a civil engineer. The children were initially raised as Southern Baptist but also practiced Muslim culture at home. Finding her father too restrictive, Dena left the home at 16 and went to live with friends.

Hammami was president of his sophomore class at Daphne High School and was in the Advanced Placement program. Following his father's return to Islam, he began to explore the religion. He grew flamboyant about his faith in high school, convincing his friend Bernie Culveyhouse to convert to Islam as well. He left high school early to start college. Friends in school thought of him as a leader.

Over time Hammami grew increasingly religious. Influenced by Tony Salvatore Sylvester, an American convert to Islam at the Masjid in Mobile, Alabama, while in college Hamammi became a Salafi. He served as president of the Muslim Students' Association at theUniversity of South Alabama. His conservative theological stance caused him conflict with his father, who asked him to leave home in 2002. Hammami also dropped out of college.

Marriage and family

Hammami and Culveyhouse worked at odd jobs, but made demands as Muslims that were difficult to meet. Together they decided to move to Toronto, Canada, which had a large Muslim community. Soon Culveyhouse married there, which Hammami hoped to do. He became more aware of the US Invasion of Iraq and began to become interested in jihad, as he was also following the fighting in Chechnya, according to his friend. In March 2005, Hammami married 19-year-old Sadiyo Mohamed Abdille, an immigrant from Somalia whose family had fled the fighting for Canada. The civil war had been going on since 1991

In June 2005, the two friends moved with their families to Alexandria, Egypt; the Hammamis' daughter was born there. The men wanted to study at Al-Azhar University, but neither was accepted, and Culveyhouse decided to return to the United States with his family.

Joining al-Shabaab in Somalia

Through an internet forum, Hammami met Daniel Maldonado, an American convert to Islam who was living in Cairo with his wife and two children. The two young men secretly made plans to leave for Somalia. At the age of 22, Hammami traveled to Somalia in November 2006 and apparently joined al-Shabaab soon after, as Mogadishu descended into war. He told his family he lost his passport, and his parents contacted federal officials to help him, but were told the US did not have diplomatic relations with Somalia. He disappeared, and his wife took their daughter with her back to Toronto. She refused his request to join him in Somalia and in 2007 got a divorce.

In October 2007, Hammami appeared publicly identified as "Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki" (the American) for the first time, giving an interview for Al Jazeera. Fluent in Arabic, with computer and organization skills, Hammami was noticed by his superiors. In a January 2008 letter, Al-Amriki explained al-Shabaab’s goal to establish an Islamic caliphate "from East to West after removing the occupier and killing the apostates."

He became a major leader in Al-Shabaab, "commanding guerrilla forces in the field, organizing attacks and plotting strategy with al Qaeda operatives, according to the New York Times. He was said to have directed an October 2008 operation in which Shirwa Ahmed, a Somali-American, blew himself up, the first known American suicide bomber." In 2010 United States officials said they knew of no other American citizen who had risen so high as Hammami in Al-Shabaab, although it had recruited nearly 20 Americans, many from the Minneapolis area.

For these activities, in 2007, Hammami was indicted in the Southern District of Alabama on terrorism violations. A superseding indictment was returned against Hammami in 2009 on terrorism violations for leaving the United States to join al-Shabaab, a terrorist organization. On 13 December 2007, a federal warrant for his arrest was issued by the United States District Court, Southern District of Alabama.

Al-Amriki revealed his face in a 31-minute video released 31 March 2009, and in recruitment footage posted to a Somali terrorist website on 5 April 2009. He said,

“The only reason we are staying here, away from our families, away from the cities, away from candy bars [and] ice,all these other things is because we are waiting to meet with the enemy…If you can encourage more of your children, and more of your neighbors, and anyone around you to send people … to this Jihad, it would be a great asset for us”.

In the video, al-Amriki talks about preparations for an ambush and his attempt to "try to blow up as many of their vehicles as we can and kill as many of them as we can." After the ambush, al-Amriki praises a killed fighter. American law enforcement authorities have claimed that Somali-Americans from Minnesota also appear in the 31 March video. One of the Americans featured in the video is Shirwa Ahmed, known to have been among four people to die in suicide attacks in October 2008 against the United Nations compound, the Ethiopian Consulate and the presidential palace in Hargeisa. The two videos indicated that Al-Amriki had become a prominent figure for al-Shabaab in its effort to recruit Western Muslims to jihad. His family and friends remain shocked that he could have embraced this cause.

On 8 July 2009, al-Amriki released an audiotape on jihadi websites. Billed as a "response" to U.S. President Barack Obama's June 2009 Cairo speech to "the Muslim world," the audio message warned Muslims against being taken in by Obama's "charisma." In the message, al-Amriki affirmed al-Shabaab’s allegiance to Al Qaeda and condoned the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States.

In September 2009 Hammami contacted his sister Dena by email, saying that he had married a Somali woman and had a baby daughter. He reaches out to his sister intermittently. She disapproves of what he is doing but does not want to lose touch altogether.

In January 2010 he uploading a lengthy autobiography available on JIHADOLOGY.net entitled "The Story of an American Jihadi: Part One." The 127-page document deals with his evolution from Muslim convert to Salafi to jihadi; enlisting in the Shabaab, life in combat fighting off hungry lions and giant ants at night. While defiant in his opposition to American government, Hammami expressed a wish to have "a three-day visit to see my mom, dad and sister." 

False reports of death

In March 2011, Somalian government sources reported that Hammami had been killed during fighting in Mogadishu. Somali Defense Minister Abdihakim Mohamoud Haji-Faqi subsequently told the Associated Press that Somali officials did not have a body and that the intelligence reports had not yet been confirmed.

The Long War Journal reported on 15 March that Hammami had not been killed as Somali officials had claimed, as he had released a videotape. As Al-Amriki, Hammami had released an Anasheed song, mocking the claims of his death.

In July 2011, the Sunatimes reported that Hammami had possibly been killed in a Predator drone attack in Jubba, Somalia. He was featured in a March 2012 video claiming that his life may be in danger from Al-Shabaab, arising from a dispute over interpretations of Sharia law.

Al Shabaab denied this, saying that it was surprised by the video and that Al-Amriki "still enjoys all the privileges of brotherhood." The group added that it was attempting to verify "the authenticity as well as the motivations behind the video" and that a formal investigation was underway. On 25 May Hammami posted an audio lecture online. In the 45-minute lecture, originally posted in January but removed, he criticized jihadist organizations with a local focus, likening them to a "cancerous tumor." He also called for all Muslims to unite in a "jihad of the entire 'Ummah' [Muslim nation]" under the banner of restored caliphate.

In November 2012, the FBI placed Hammami on its "Most Wanted Terrorist" list.

On 17 December 2012, Al-Shabaab posted a message on Twitter publicly chastising Hammami for releasing videos in a "narcissistic pursuit of fame." The tweet asserted that the group had tried to talk with him privately but in vain. Al-Shabaab claimed a moral obligation to reveal Hammami's "obstinacy".

On 9 May 2013, senior member of al Shabaab militant Fuad Mohamed Shangole claimed that Abu Mansoor al Amriki had been killed by armed men loyal to the top al Shabaab leader Ahmed Godane in Rama-cadey area. Preaching at a mosque in Bula-Barde town of Hiran region in central Somalia, Shangole said that Abu Mansoor al Amriki was killed after men he dubbed to be "apostates" ambushed him. Shangole said after Omar Hamami was killed, a fight between extremist militias erupted where a number of al Shabaab fighters were killed.

However, the reports of al-Amriki's death were proven wrong when he was interviewed by Voice of America on September 3, 2013.

Spencer Ackermans's views of Al-Amriki's activism

Spencer Ackerman of Wired, in consideration of whether Hammami is a terrorist, mentioned that leaked memoranda from the United States Justice Department stated that Hammammi is not a "senior operational leader" of Al-Qaeda or of any affiliate groups of Al-Qaeda. Ackerman himself wrote that Hammami was a "thorn in the side" of Al-Shabaab, a regional Al-Qaeda affiliate, and that Hammami had never killed a civilian. Ackerman noted that Hammami's "consistent advocacy of jihad against the U.S., in context, is incitement to violence, and he has reconciled himself to the idea of violent struggle against the west." Also Hammami said that he had killed a non-civilian individual who was unable to fight back.

Death

Omar Hammami was again reported killed on September 12, 2013, in an early-morning attack in a village south-west of the capital, Mogadishu.