2015-01-09 16:14
Mogadishu - Somalia's Al Shabaab militants, Al-Qaeda's main
affiliate in Africa, on Friday praised the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo
satirical weekly in Paris as a "heroic" act.
"They made millions
of Muslims happy by taking action. Some misguided people claim that
freedom of expression was attacked, but that is not the case, and the
two heroic people acted accordingly," Radio Andalus, the official
mouthpiece of the militants, said in a commentary.
"They cut the
head of non-believers who insulted our beloved prophet," the radio said,
adding that Osama Bin Laden had "told the West that if freedom of
expression has no limit, then you have to expect your blood to be shed."
It
said the satirical magazine had "insulted our prophet and annoyed
millions of Muslims", and described the attackers as "our two brothers
(who) were the first to take revenge".
Alluding
to early eyewitness accounts, the radio also noted that the two
brothers suspected of carrying out the killings had "declared that they
are part of Al-Qaeda", the Islamist network to which the Al Shabaab are
also affiliated.
Also read: African Union says military still weakening Somalia's al Shabaab
The
Al Shabaab, who control large areas of rural Somalia, are reported to
have close links with Al-Qaeda fighters in neighbouring Yemen, where one
of the two brothers suspected of carrying out the attack is believed to
have trained.
The Al Shabaab were also linked to Mohamed Geele, a
Somali man who was convicted of a 2010 axe attack against Danish
cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who had faced numerous death threats since
his caricature of the Muslim prophet Mohammed appeared in the Danish
daily Jyllands-Posten in 2005.
Geele is serving a 10-year sentence for the attack.
The
Al Shabaab sprang out of the Islamic Courts Union that controlled
Mogadishu in 2006 before being pushed out by Ethiopian forces.
The
group were finally driven from fixed positions in Mogadishu in 2011,
and have lost several strongholds in the south and centre of the country
in a recent offensive by the African Union's AMISOM force, which is
fighting in support of Somalia's internationally-backed government.
The
group, however, still controls large parts of the south and centre of
the country, and have expanded their reach with a string of major
attacks in neighbouring Kenya, including the September 2013 siege of the
Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi that left at least 67 dead.
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