British Intelligence Agencies Report More than 100 Residents Are Training with Al-Shabaab in Somalia

According to websites for MI5, the British intelligence and security agency, officials now believe that over 100 residents in the U.K. have been trained in Somalia for al-Shabaab. The website also says that it is believed that more than 40 of those British residents are fighting in Somalia now.

There is the possibility that these militants could return to Britain and many officials in the U.K. believe that the threat of attack on the country is more likely to happen from Somalia than from Yemen. However, it’s very difficult to track the movement of these militants because they are re-entering the country with EU passports and from EU countries.

The website also stresses that al-Shabaab has close ties with al-Qaida and that Somalia is showing many of the same signs that made Afghanistan a haven for terrorists. The government there is all but non-existent and there are extremist militant training camps throughout the country.

Last year, the head of MI5, Jonathan Evans, said that he believed there would be terrorist attacks in Britain by U.K. residents who are training with al-Shabaab. That statement was made long before these numbers were known.

In the United States, the FBI is trying to take custody of a suicide bomber’s remains to see if it one of the 21 men who left Minneapolis to training in Somalia with al-Shabaab. Abdisalan Hussein Ali is a Somali-American and should those remains be positively identified as his, then it will be the third time that one of those 21 men has waged a suicide attack in Somalia. This last attack claimed the lives of ten people, including two suicide bombers.

The FBI continues to investigate the connection between Minnesota and al-Shabaab when it comes to recruiting young men to fight or train with the militant group in Somalia.

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