Islamic State glorifies defector from Al-Shabab in its publication

Al-Naba, the news bulletin of the Islamic State is publishing an ongoing series titled, ‘Story of a Martyr’ (Qissat al-Shaheed) as a lead information. In its 242nd issue, it published a two-page profile of Khalid Jama Mohamed Osman (alias Abu Osama al-Muhajir), a former member and senior media operative in the Somali Sunni militant Islamist group Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, who defected to the Islamic State’s Wilayat al-Sumaal or Somalia province.

According to the profile, Osman was born in the Islamic lunar month of Safar in the 1413 Hijri year (July 30-August 27, 1992) in the city of Quetta in Pakistan’s Balochistan province to a conservative Somali Muslim family. By the age of eight, he had reportedly memorised the Quran and, as a young man, was a keen follower of world news and current events as well as an avid reader. It was his close following of the news and wide-ranging reading that, the biography said, later “qualified him to be a mujahid in the field of jihadi media”.

Sometime in 1428 Hijri (January 20, 2007 to January 9, 2008) he attempted to cross the Pakistani-Afghan border when he was 15 years old but was stopped by “apostate” Pakistani border guards, after which Pakistani authorities sent him back home to Quetta. The publication then glorifies the Jihad by Osman and mentions that he threw rocks at Pakistan security and counter-terrorism forces.Ads By GoogleOsman joined Al-Shabab around 2010. He received a military training in Al-Shabaab camps in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu and the Bay and Bakool regions and, on graduating, was posted to the “Al-Quds Battalion” (Sarayat al-Quds). The profile claimed that Osman was wounded during battles in Mogadishu between Al-Shabaab, the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) forces.

The profile then mentions that Osman was discontented with Al-Shabab and was attracted to the ideology of the Islamic State. According to the Islamic State biography, at an unspecified date soon after the group declared the formation of its “Caliphate” in June 2014, Osman pledged allegiance (baya) and began to actively work toward forming an Islamic State affiliate in Somalia. This aroused the fury of Al-Shabab and he was imprisoned probably for a year and eight months. He was warned that he would be executed if he attempted to join the Islamic State again.

The profile then mentions that Osman finally succeeded in joining Wilayat al-Sumaal in Puntland – where the group had established its largest presence in Somalia. In response, Al-Shabaab’s internal security apparatus, the Amniyat, raided and ransacked his residence, seizing weapons and his personal computer while threatening, harassing, and detaining members of his family. Al-Shabaab subsequently threatened to hunt him down and kill him for defecting to the rival Islamist militant organisation.

Osman soon rose swiftly in the IS ranks. He was a key figure in the media operations of Wilayat al-Sumaal on account of his knowledge of Arabic. The Al Naba profile mentioned that Osman was killed in a US Africa Command (AFRICOM) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) missile strike in Puntland’s Golis Mountains.

This profiling highlights the ideological differences between Al-Shabaab and the Islamic State and also indicates the struggle for supremacy between the two groups in the Puntland region. At a broad level, this profiling is also reflective of the conflict between Al-Shabaab and the Islamic State to portray themselves as the true representatives of Islam in the conflict-zones.