Jehad Mostafa

Jehad Serwan Mostafa (; born December 28, 1981), also known as Anwar al-Amriki , is an American-born senior leader in al-Shabaab, the al-Qaida affiliate in Somalia. Mostafa has been on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list since 2011, as per his significance to multiple terrorist cells, and is believed to be the highest ranking U.S. citizen in a foreign terrorist organization.

Early life Jehad Serwan Mostafa was born on December 28, 1981, in Waukesha, Wisconsin to Halim Mostafa Gabori (died 2018), a Kurd from Syria, and an American mother. He was raised in Serra Mesa, California, and earned a degree in economics at the University of California, San Diego in 2005.

In his youth, he served as the head of the Muslim Youth Council of San Diego and became a security guard registered with the California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services by 2000. During his time in San Diego, he was described as "very kind, very peaceful, very patient" and as "not scary or aggressive".

Involvement with terrorism Mostafa married a Somali woman in 2005; and, that same year, departed from the United States. where he engaged in fighting alongside the Islamic Courts Union seeking to expel Ethiopian troops from Somali territory. He then joined al-Shabaab, which was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department in 2008.

In 2011, Mostafa appeared at an al-Shabaab press conference with al-Shabaab leadership.