Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki

Omar Shafik Hammami (, Umar Shafīq Hammāmī; 6 May 1984 – 12 September 2013), also known by the pseudonym Abu Mansoor al-Amriki (, Abū Manṣūr al-Amrīkī), was an American citizen who was a member and leader in the Somali Islamist militant group al-Shabaab. A federal warrant for his arrest was issued in 2007. In November 2012, the FBI added Hammami to its Most Wanted Terrorists list.

Omar was raised in a Christian household with an American Protestant mother and a Syrian-born Muslim father. Hammami began to identify as Muslim in high school, after traveling to Syria and meeting his Muslim relatives, and proceeded to drop out of college. After moving to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and marrying a Somali-Canadian woman in 2004, he traveled with her to Egypt in 2005. He then abandoned his wife and infant daughter to join Al-Shabaab in Somalia in late 2006. They divorced, and by 2009 he had married a Somali woman and had another daughter.

Hammami served as a commander, propagandist, and recruiter.

Early life Hammami was born to Shafik Hammami and Debra Hadley and grew up in Daphne, Alabama, with an older sister Dena. His mother, Hadley, is of Irish descent and was a former schoolteacher. The children were initially raised as Southern Baptist but also practiced Muslim culture at home. Finding her father too restrictive, Dena left the home at 16 and went to live with friends.

Over time, Hammami grew increasingly religious. While in college, he became influenced by Tony Salvatore Sylvester, an American convert to Islam at the Masjid in Mobile, Alabama and Hamammi became a Salafi. He served as president of the Muslim Students' Association at the University of South Alabama. His theological stance caused him conflict with his father, who asked him to leave home in 2002. Hammami also dropped out of college. The men wanted to study at Al-Azhar University but neither was accepted, and Culveyhouse decided to return to the United States with his family.

Hammami became a major leader in Al-Shabaab, "commanding guerrilla forces in the field, organizing attacks and plotting strategy with al Qaeda operatives, according to The New York Times. He was said to have directed an October 2008 operation in which Shirwa Ahmed, a Somali-American, blew himself up, the second known American suicide bomber." American law enforcement authorities have claimed that Somali-Americans from Minnesota also appear in the 31 March video. One of the Americans featured in the video is Shirwa Ahmed, known to have been among four people to die in suicide attacks in October 2008 against the United Nations compound, the Ethiopian Consulate and the presidential palace in Hargeisa. The two videos indicated that Al-Amriki had become a prominent figure for al-Shabaab in its effort to recruit Western Muslims to jihad. His family and friends remain shocked that he could have embraced this cause. In the message, al-Amriki affirmed al-Shabaab's allegiance to Al Qaeda and condoned the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States. The 127-page document deals with his evolution from Muslim convert to Salafi to jihadi; enlisting in the Shabaab, life in combat fighting off hungry lions and giant ants at night. While defiant in his opposition to American government, Hammami expressed a wish to have "a three-day visit to see my mom, dad and sister."

In April 2011, Hammami released two rap songs dealing with jihad. One song, called Send me a Cruise, praised martyrdom at the hands of US forces. The other song, Make Jihad With Me, was aimed at recruiting Islamic youth to join the al Shabaab movement.

False reports of death In March 2011, Somalian government sources reported that Hammami had been killed during fighting in Mogadishu. Somali Defence Minister Abdihakim Mohamoud Haji-Faqi subsequently told the Associated Press that Somali officials did not have a body and that the intelligence reports had not yet been confirmed.

Long War Journal reported on 15 March that Hammami had not been killed as Somali officials had claimed, as he had released a videotape. As Al-Amriki, Hammami had released an Anasheed song, mocking the claims of his death.

In July 2011, the Sunatimes reported that Hammami had possibly been killed in a Predator drone attack in Jubba, Somalia. He was featured in a March 2012 video claiming that his life may be in danger from Al-Shabaab, arising from a dispute over interpretations of Sharia law.

Al Shabaab denied this, saying that it was surprised by the video and that Al-Amriki "still enjoys all the privileges of brotherhood." The group added that it was attempting to verify "the authenticity as well as the motivations behind the video" and that a formal investigation was underway. On 25 May Hammami posted an audio lecture online. In the 45-minute lecture, originally posted in January but removed, he criticized jihadist organizations with a local focus, likening them to a "cancerous tumor." He also called for all Muslims to unite in a "jihad of the entire 'Ummah'" under the banner of restored caliphate.

In November 2012, the FBI placed Hammami on its Most Wanted Terrorists list.

On 9 May 2013, senior member of al Shabaab and militant Fuad Mohamed Shangole claimed that Abu Mansoor al Amriki had been killed by armed men loyal to the top al Shabaab leader Ahmed Godane in Rama-cadey area. Preaching at a mosque in Bula-Barde town of Hiran region in central Somalia, Shangole said that Abu Mansoor al Amriki was killed after men he dubbed to be "apostates" ambushed him. Shangole said after Omar Hamami was killed, a fight between extremist militias erupted where a number of al Shabaab fighters were killed.

However, the reports of al-Amriki's death were proven wrong when he was interviewed by Voice of America on 3 September 2013.

Death Omar Hammami was killed on 12 September 2013, in an early-morning ambush by al-Shabaab militants in a village near the town of Dinsoor, south-west of the capital, Mogadishu. US administration officials in the embassy of Nairobi, Kenya investigated the validity of the reports of his death.

Hammami's death was eventually confirmed when the FBI removed him from their Most Wanted Terrorists list in November 2013. He was removed from the U.S. State Department's Rewards for Justice list in January 2014.