London, July 17 (ANI): A Somali terror group linked to Al-Qaeda allegedly recruited over 20 young men from Minnesota to fight the Ethopian army.
Details of how a carefully organized Islamist cell raised money, created fake itineraries and held secret meetings have emerged ahead of the trial of one suspected leader.
Omer Abdi Mohamed, 26, is one of 18 men charged with recruiting young Somalis from Minneapolis to join terror group al-Shabab, which has links to Al-Qaeda, the Daily Mail reports.
According to the court documents, since 2007, at least 21 men have left Minnesota for Somalia, where they arrived at safehouses and were given AK-47s and weapons training, before fighting Ethiopian troops.
Back in Minnesota, members of the cell raised money for their trip by duping the Somali community into thinking the cash was to give aid to their home country, the paper said.
According to prosecutors, Mohamed and others conspired to raise money to send men to Somalia so they could oust the Ethiopians with violence.
The group held meetings at mosques and restaurants, and took measures to keep things secretive, the paper said.
In Minneapolis, the conspiracy focused on travelling and funding trips and in Somalia, it focused on the use of safe-houses and weapons training, prosecutors said.
Some Minneapolis men helped clear brush for a training camp, and some participated in a July 2008 ambush of Ethiopian troops along a road in Somalia.
The preparations and the ambush were filmed as part of a propaganda video, the paper said.
Prosecutors said that in the video, a man from Minneapolis could be seen encouraging more men to join the fighters in Somalia. (ANI)
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