14 charged for supporting Somalia terrorist group

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," according to an indictment.

The attorney general credited Muslim community leaders in the United States for regularly denouncing terrorists and for providing critical assistance to law enforcement to help disrupt terrorist plots and combat radicalization. "We must . . . work to prevent this type of radicalization from ever taking hold," Holder said.

At least seven of the 14 people charged are U.S. citizens and 10, all from Minnesota, allegedly left the United States to join al-Shabab. Seven of the 10 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 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 United States and other Western countries.

One of two indictments issued in Minnesota alleges that two Somali women who were among those charged, and others, went door to door in Minneapolis; Rochester, Minn., and elsewhere in the United States and Canada to raise funds for al-Shabab's operations in Somalia.

Omar Hammami, now known as Abu Mansour al-Amriki, or "the American," was charged in Mobile, Ala. He has become one of al-Shabab's most high-profile members.

In San Diego, prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging Jehad Serwan Mostafa, 28, with conspiring to provide material support to al-Shabab. Mostafa is believed to be in Somalia.