A Minnesota man who became known as the first American suicide bomber in Somalia was leery about joining a terrorist group in his homeland at first and later tried to leave, but was stopped by the terrorist leaders, according to one of the men who had been with him.

Salah Osman Ahmed testified Tuesday in federal court in Minneapolis that the bomber, Shirwa Ahmed, left a training camp in southern Somalia with the hopes of returning with him to the United States. But leaders of Al-Shabab, a U.S.-designated terrorist group that ran a safehouse for its recruits, had taken his passport and would not give it back, said Salah Ahmed.

Salah Ahmed is one of the witnesses for the U.S. government in the ongoing trial of Mahamud Said Omar, 46, of Minneapolis. Omar faces five charges related to helping a terrorist organization and conspiring to kill and maim people overseas. He is accused of encouraging and giving money to some of the 20 or more Minnesota Somali men who left to fight in a holy war in Somalia.

He said he managed to escape by telling camp leaders that he needed to seek treatment for a rash in the southern port city of Kismayo. Another Minnesota recruit, Abdifatah Yusuf Isse, was also able to leave the camp with another excuse. Isse testified last week and also said that Shirwa Ahmed had tried to leave Al-Shabab.

“Shirwa wanted to come with us to Kismayo because he wanted to come to the United States, but they didn’t let him…. Instead he went back to Mogadishu so he was trapped. He couldn’t come back,” Salah Ahmed told jurors.

Salah Ahmed continued testimony that started Friday about his travel in 2007 to Somalia to fight against Ethiopian troops who had entered Somalia. He told jurors that while he was staying at an Al-Shabab safehouse in Somalia, a call came from Shirwa Ahmed who was in Saudi Arabia at the time. He had been planning on joining the other Minnesota recruits in Somalia, but was having second thoughts.

“He called and said, ‘I’m not coming to Somalia. I spoke to some scholars in Mecca and they said whatever’s going on in Somalia is not something that is good… I think you guys have been tricked,’” Salah Ahmed said. He said another Minnesota recruit, Khalid Mohamed Abshir, and a woman at the safehouse known as “mother” got on the phone and persuaded him to come.

Later, after he had returned safely to the United States, Salah Ahmed learned what became of Shirwa Ahmed. FBI officials, using DNA samples and fingerprints, determined that he died in a coordinated series of suicide bombings on Oct. 29, 2008 in northern Somalia that killed more than two dozen people.

“I was thinking that he was the last person I ever would have thought who would do something like this,” Salah Ahmed said. “Maybe he got forced, I don’t know.”

Omar’s lawyers are cross-examining Salah Ahmed Tuesday afternoon.

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Star Tribune

Allie Shah • 612-673-4488

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