Was the Somali-Danish Citizen really the Suicide Bomber?

The person who was identified by the Somali government as the alleged suicide bomber and said to have blown himself up at a graduation ceremony in Mogadishu killing 25 people including ministers, students, doctors, and journalists came from Marka, a stronghold town of al Shabaab in southern Somalia, has been claimed by government officials, but his father refuted all such claims.

The Speaker of the Somali Parliament Sheikh Aden Mohamed Nur and the Information Minister Dahir Mohamud Gelle said the bomber was from Denmark.

Somali Information Minister Dahir Gelle stated that the bomber's parents, who live in Copenhagen, identified their son's body from photographs. The minister said the young man was identified by his father after the photographs were released. Gelle stated that the man was identified as 26 year-old Abdurahman, who had been living in Denmark for a long time and that Abdurahman retuned to Somalia in June 2008. Gelle believes that many of the suicide bombs are carried out by young Somalis who grown up western countries.

No information was immediately available from Denmark's embassy in Nairobi.

Accusation refused

But Hassan Haji, the father of the alleged suicide bomber Abdurahman Nuune, said his son was living in Marka and only went last year together with his wife from Denmark to Somalia in order to learn about the Islamic religion

His father says that his son was invited by his friend to attend the ceremony and denied that he bombed the graduation ceremony.

“My son used to contact me regularly. He and his pregnant wife were staying in Marka,” he said.

Assumptions

Analysts say most Somali youth from overseas in the towns under al Shabaab control are supporters or fighters of the group since they returned back to the country after having been indoctrinated with their ideology.

Reports say Abdurahman left Somalia when he was a child together with his parents, who are said to hail from one of the Ogaden sub-clans, and spent 20 years in Denmark, before returning to Somalia last year. He reportedly joined the hard-line Islamist group al-Shabab.

The Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) also says the bomber was from Denmark.

The Copenhagen Post quoted PET as saying the man was in his 20s and was "a Somali citizen who had residence in Denmark".

"As PET has indicated numerous times in the past, there are people with ties to Denmark who have gone through militant Islamic training and radicalisation and who are involved in terror-related activities in several countries, including in Somalia," a PET statement said, according to the newspaper.

Denial

Al-Shabab, which wants to enforce a strict version of Islamic law in Somalia, is accused of having links to al-Qaeda.

Government officials and the UN envoy to Somalia accused the suicide attack on the Islamist group, Al-shabaab, but the group has since denied being responsible.

The group has previously carried out several suicide bombings against government targets - but it has usually claimed responsibility immediately.

For this bombing so far nobody has claimed responsibility and Al Shabaab has denied any involvement in the attack while pointing fingers back to the TFG officials themselves. Allegedly the assumed bomber was well know to circles of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), a group, which was headed by now President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed.

The bombing took place at Shamo Hotel during a graduation for medical students on 3 December in one of the few parts of the capital, Mogadishu, which is secured by the government, but it is also an area controlled by the HabrGedir clan who - while often critical to the present TFG government - do not allow Al Shabab fighters to penetrate.

The students had been graduating from Benadir University, which was set up in 2002 to train doctors to replace those who had fled overseas or been killed in the civil war.

Four ministers and three journalists as well as students and medical doctors are among the dead.

Suicide bombers were unknown in Somalia until 2007.

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