By Sasha von Oldershausen
What do you do when the U.S. government puts a bounty on
your head? In the case of a leader of the Somali militant group al
Shabab, he made his own offer: In exchange for information about Barack
Obama, he would give away 10... camels, ABC News reports.
The mock offer came in response to the U.S. government’s announcement last Thursday that it would pay a total of $33 million in rewards for information leading to the capture of seven members of the al Qaeda-linked group, the BBC reports.
According to Reuters, al Shabab's Fuad Muhammad Khalaf said: "Whoever reveals the hideout of the idiot Obama will be rewarded with 10 camels, and whoever reveals the hideout of the old woman Hillary Clinton will be rewarded 10 chickens and 10 roosters.”
The statement was discovered by SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant activity, Reuters reports.
Al Shabaab formally joined al Qaeda in February 2012. According to the Associated Press the group counts a mix of conscripts, paid fighters, clan militias, and ideologues. "It counts a few hundred foreign fighters among its ranks. Most are drawn from other East African nations but a few have traveled from as far afield as Pakistan and Chechnya," the AP writes.
The BBC noted that U.S. representatives were unphased by the al Shabab’s mockery. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson dismissed the comment at a news conference. Carson added that “significant progress” had been made against the group, BBC reports.
Blind-folded suspected al-Shabaab men who were arrested
during a search operation in Ealsha Biyaha, 28km north of Mogadishu,
Somalia, sit in the back of a pickup truck before they were taken to
Mogadishu for interrogation Saturday, June 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi
Warsameh)
The mock offer came in response to the U.S. government’s announcement last Thursday that it would pay a total of $33 million in rewards for information leading to the capture of seven members of the al Qaeda-linked group, the BBC reports.
According to Reuters, al Shabab's Fuad Muhammad Khalaf said: "Whoever reveals the hideout of the idiot Obama will be rewarded with 10 camels, and whoever reveals the hideout of the old woman Hillary Clinton will be rewarded 10 chickens and 10 roosters.”
The statement was discovered by SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant activity, Reuters reports.
Al Shabaab formally joined al Qaeda in February 2012. According to the Associated Press the group counts a mix of conscripts, paid fighters, clan militias, and ideologues. "It counts a few hundred foreign fighters among its ranks. Most are drawn from other East African nations but a few have traveled from as far afield as Pakistan and Chechnya," the AP writes.
The BBC noted that U.S. representatives were unphased by the al Shabab’s mockery. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson dismissed the comment at a news conference. Carson added that “significant progress” had been made against the group, BBC reports.
