US prosecutors go after Somali militant funders
US prosecutors are charging eight people with giving financial support for the recruitment and training of young men fighting with Somali Islamist militants, as part of an investigation into such men leaving the US to fight in Somalia. Some 20 individuals, nearly all of them of Somali descent, are thought to have left Minnesota to fight with militants in the last two years. US federal prosecutors accuse them of aiding Somali militant group al-Shabaab, which the US says has links to al-Qaeda. The rebels regularly pummel African peacekeepers protecting the country’s fragile government. Several of the recruits have died, including in suicide bombings with most thought to be outside the US, according to US authorities. Read more: BBC, AllAfrica.com
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