Minnesota Muslim Recruited to Fight in Somalia is Killed

Mohamoud Hassan joins the list of Somali Muslim men with Minnesota connections killed in Somalia. Hassan is believed to be one of as many as 20 Minnesota Somali muslim men recruited to go fight in the country's civil war. In the past year, Burhan Hassan, Jamal Bana and Zakaria Maruf have all been killed while fighting in Somalia. Those men, and Mohamoud Hassan, were reportedly with the militant Islamist group Al-Shabaab that is fighting to overthrow the Somali government and is linked to the Alqaida terrorist group. A spokesman for Hassan's family says Mohamoud's involvement with the group was unexpected. "He was a very smart young kid, and it adds to the mystery of exactly what happened," said Omar Jamal.Hassan was known to write about anti-government forces. In an essay on Facebook that was published in the New York Times, he wrote " I would advise you to stop sending young Somali boys on suicide missions against well-armed and well-trained troops." Hassan was a University of Minnesota engineering student before leaving to go fight in Somalia. His family's spokesman says he is not optimistic about the Somali men like Hassan ever returning to the U.S. "I don't think they will ever come back. I think they will all be killed," said Jamal. Federal law prohibits anyone from going to another country to fight or join terrorists. While the reasons why 20 some muslim men left Minnesota to fight in Somalia are a mystery, the focus has now shifted to prevent anyone from leaving to fight there in the future.