The US State Department has launched a hunt for two Kenyan Al- Shabaab leaders by listing them as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SGDTs).
Ahmad Iman Ali who is the leader of the terror group operations in Kenya and Abdifatah Abubakar Abdi a dangerous Kenyan commander were added to the list on March 8.
In their statement, the State Department disclosed that Ali was responsible for an attack on a Kenya military base in January 2016 that killed at least 150 Kenyan soldiers.
[caption caption="Sheikh Ahmad Iman Ali, the leader of Shabaab’s branch in Kenya, from a videotape released on Jan 6. Courtesy"]
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“Ali is also responsible for Al-Shabaab propaganda targeting the Kenyan government and civilians, such as a July 2017 video in which he issues threats to Muslims serving in Kenya’s security forces,” the Department relayed.
Ali, who served as a cleric for the Nairobi-based Muslim Youth Center, was appointed to head the Al-Shabaab in 2012 where he sought to recruit youth for the group in city slums.
In 2015 the Kenya government put Abdi, who is also known as Musa Muhajir at the top of a list of wanted jihadists in the country.
He is wanted in connection with the 2014 attacks in Mpeketoni that claimed more than 60 lives.
Kenyans.co.ke has established that by listing the terrorists as SGDTs, the US aims at stopping them from acquiring resources from their country that would be used to conduct terror attacks in Kenya.
"The designation SDGT is one of several types of designations of persons to whom one or more OFAC-administered sanctions apply; these include country-specific and counter-narcotics trafficking, non-proliferation, and transnational criminal organization-related sanctions," read part of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) website.
The main regulatory framework underlying the SDGT designation was established two weeks after the September 11 attacks in 2001, through Executive Order 13224, by President George W. Bush.
The Executive order is aimed at blocking property and prohibiting transactions with persons who commit, threaten to commit, or support terrorism.
[caption caption="Abdifatah Abubakar Abdi"]
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