FBI investigating if Somalia bomber was Minn. man
MINNEAPOLIS — The FBI is testing the remains of a suicide bomber in Somalia to try to determine his identity.
The terrorist group al-Shabab says an American by the name of Abdisalan Taqabalahullaah carried out Saturday’s suicide attack in Mogadishu.
Omar Jamal, first secretary of the Somali mission to the United Nations, identifies the bomber as Abdisalan Hussein Ali of Minneapolis. That’s after some of Ali’s friends said they recognized his voice on a recording posted online by al-Shabab.
But other friends told Minnesota Public Radio News the voice is not Ali’s.
The FBI is conducting DNA testing to determine a positive ID.
Ali was 19 when he left Minnesota in November 2008 and is believed to have joined al-Shabab in Somalia. He was indicted on terror-related charges in 2010.