Six men from Minneapolis, Minnesota were arrested on Sunday, the 19th, accusing them of trying to go to Syria to join an Islamic Group. They were charged with conspiracy to support terrorism, particularly within the group called the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.
The men are of Somali-American origin and lived in Minneapolis. Their names are Mohamed Farah, Adnan Farah, Abdirahman Daud, Guled Omar, Hanad Musse and Zacharia Abdurahman and their ages varied from 18 to24. However, they were reported to be in touch with another man from Minnesota, Abdi Nur, who has been recruiting other fighters for the terrorist organization. FBI agents arrested two of them (Mohamed Abdihamid Farah and Abdurahman Yasin Daud) in San Diego, where they were caught trying to get passports, go to Mexico and fly to the Middle East. The other ones (Adnan Abdihamid Farah, Zacharia Yusuf Abdurahman, Hanad Mustafe Musse and Guled Ali Oma) were taken from Minneapolis. Reports claim that they were in contact with another conspirator that managed to flee the USA last May. He was also from Minnesota.
The investigation preceding the arrests lasted for ten months. According to officials, what triggered it was the declaration of one of the original conspirators who changed his mind and decided to come forward to the authorities and give away very important information regarding the recruitment and the conspiracy. Many Somali men are called up to fight and provide secret data to terrorist groups by social media campaign issued by members of the ISIL, according to investigators. These six conspirators expressed their deep dissatisfaction and disgust with the American culture. Andy Luger, U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, declared that this is generally a problem in Minnesota and it has nothing to do with the fact that these people are immigrants. However, Abdi Nur continues to recruit fighters for the Middle East and this problem is not likely to stop soon.
This is not the first time residents of Minnesota are trying to flee the country to join such organizations. At least 20 other Somali- Americans have tried to leave the country to fight for groups in Syria and one died.
Three months ago, a group of officials met in Washington for a three-day summit at the White House to discuss the problem of these problematic terrorist recruitments.
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