Mukhtar Robow

Sheikh Mukhtar Robow Ali (also known as Abu Mansour ) (* in the 1960s in the Bardale District, Bay Region , South Somalia ) is considered a representative of radical Islamism in Somalia. He was a high-ranking member of the Union of Islamic Courts and is now the leader of the al-Shabaab militia.

Life

Mukhtar Robow is a member of the Leysan subclan of the Rahanweyn . He studied at the local Koran school and later at the mosque in Mogadishu . In the 1990s he also studied Islamic law at the University of Khartoum in Sudan . Back in Mogadishu, he worked for the Al-Haramein Saudi Foundation , which was later accused by the US of being linked to Islamist terrorists. Mukhtar Robow is also said to have fought on the side of the Taliban in Afghanistan .

In Somalia, he became a high-ranking member of the Union of Islamic Courts , which took control of large parts of the country in 2006. As a representative of the extremist wing within the Union, he called for a holy war against Ethiopia in Mogadishu in autumn 2006 . Before the Ethiopian invasion, however, he preferred to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. In 2008 he became leader of the Islamist youth militia al-Shabaab after his predecessor Aden Hashi Ayro was killed in a US air strike.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Robow, Mukhtar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Robow Ali, Mukhtar; Abu Mansour
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Somali Islamist politician and militia leader
DATE OF BIRTH	between 1960 and 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bardale District, Southern Somalia