A twitter account that was used by Al Shabaab militia
to claim responsibility for Saturday attack at Nairobi’s Westgate Mall
has been suspended. The account which had a handle @HSM_Press was also
used to issue further threats to the Kenyan government and public
following the siege that left 39 people dead and more than 150 injured.
This was the third time twitter suspended an English
account attributed to the Somalia based militia in incidences relating
to Kenya.
In January 2013 another handle @HSMPress1 was suspended
after the group used it to post a threat that they intended to kill
Kenyan hostages that were in their possession for eighteen months. Two
of the hostages a former District Officer and a Registration of Persons
Clerk were released in August this year.
In September 2012 another handle @HSMPress was removed
from the cyberspace after the militia used it to post what it claimed to
be bodies of four Kenyan soldiers they claimed they had killed in a
battle in the town of Afmadow, Somalia.
Al Shabaab started posting their messages in English on
twitter late 2011 to counter Kenya Military Spokesman Major Emmanuel
Chirchir’s (@MajorEChirChir) updates regarding Operation Linda Nchi that
was launched in October that year to flash out the radical group from
areas they were holding in Somalia and using to access Kenya.
In all their English twitter accounts the groups has
been seen to maintain the initials HSM- in full Harakat Al Shabaab Al
Mujahedeen which translates to Movement of the Striving Youth (the Al is
not visible because in Arabic ‘Al’ which is similar to article ‘the’ in
English is silent when it precedes some word).
Already there is another similar active account which was up immediately after Saturday’s suspension of @HSM_Press.
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