August 6, 2010 in Nation/World

Fourteen accused of aiding Somali group

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WASHINGTON – The government announced Thursday that it has charged 14 people as participants in “a deadly pipeline” to Somalia that routed money and fighters from the United States to the terrorist group al-Shabab.

The indictments unsealed in Minneapolis, San Diego and Mobile, Ala., reflect “a disturbing trend” of recruitment efforts targeting U.S. residents to become terrorists, Attorney General Eric Holder told a news conference. In one case, two women pleaded for money “to support violent jihad in Somalia.”

Of the 14 people charged at least half are U.S. citizens and 12 of them are out of the country, including 10 men from Minnesota who allegedly left to join al-Shabab. Seven of those 10 Minnesota men named in one of Thursday’s indictments had been charged previously in the probe.

Al-Shabab is a Somali insurgent faction embracing a radical form of Islam similar to the harsh, conservative brand practiced by Afghanistan’s former Taliban regime. Its fighters, numbering several thousand strong, are battling Somalia’s weakened government and have been branded a terrorist group with ties to al-Qaida by the U.S. and other Western countries.

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