He was an infant when he left his homeland of Somalia. He grew up an American, a bright student with dreams of becoming a doctor or lawyer. But those dreams ended when 17-year-old Burhan Hassan returned to Somalia months ago and eventually was killed under mysterious circumstances. Hassan was one of about a dozen young Somali men who have gone missing from the Minneapolis area over the last couple years — recruited, their families say, by radical elements in Somalia. Relatives said they learned Friday that he had been killed and buried in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, but they had few details. His death follows a suicide bombing carried out in that warring Horn of Africa country by a young Somali man from Minneapolis last October. "We believe he was killed because he would have been a key person in the investigation into the recruitment (of young Somali men) here in Minneapolis," said Hassan's uncle, Abdirizak Bihi. Bihi said his nephew was found dead — shot in the head — in an open area of the city.Hassan's mother declined to comment Monday. But Bihi, her brother, said she's "devastated, the whole family's devastated." "We had a young kid, we put all the efforts in our life to bring him here," Bihi told The Associated Press. FBI Special Agent E.K. Wilson said he could not confirm whether Hassan had been killed. A State Department spokeswoman, Joanne Moore, had no firm information either. The FBI has acknowledged an ongoing investigation into the disappearances, but won't elaborate. Several local Somalis say they've been questioned by the FBI, Customs officials, or subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury over the last several months.
Hassan — who was raised by a single mother after his father died in an accident — was 8 months old when his family arrived at a refugee camp in Kenya. With two older brothers and a sister, he was not yet 4 when they came to the United States in 1996.
Hassan was a student at Roosevelt High School and was taking college courses such as calculus and advanced chemistry through the University of Minnesota, with dreams of attending Harvard University to study medicine or law. "He never knew anything about Somalia. He grew up here. He was an American kid," Bihi said. He said his nephew did not even speak the Somali language. But last November, Hassan disappeared at the age of 17. His mother reported him missing to police. Relatives said they feared he was recruited by al-Shabab, an extremist Islamist group considered by the U.S. State Department to be a terrorist organization with links to al-Qaida. Al-Shabab denies the links. Last October, a Minneapolis man, Shirwa Ahmed, carried out a suicide bombing as part of a series of coordinated attacks that targeted a U.N. compound, the Ethiopian consulate and the presidential palace in Hargeisa, capital of the Somaliland region. FBI Director Robert Mueller said in February that the bomber had probably been "radicalized" in the Twin Cities. Bihi, Hassan's uncle, has said that Hassan called home from time to time but the calls were short and cryptic. When family members asked Hassan what he was doing, the teen quickly ended the phone conversation, Bihi has said. Bihi said the teenager, who was in poor physical shape, had been sick — possibly with malaria — and that his family had been working to try to bring Hassan to the U.S. Embassy in Kenya. Bihi said the family suspected that Hassan was killed by members of al-Shabab. Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, said there is a concern Hassan was killed because of plans to return to the U.S., and he noted others are still unaccounted for. "Someone ought to be held accountable for this," Jamal said. Like some of the other missing young people, Hassan had also attended the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in Minneapolis. Hassan had gone to the mosque for more than 10 years and was involved in a youth group there, another uncle told a U.S. Senate committee in March...more..http://wcco.com/wireapnewsfmn/Uncle.Teen.who.2.1036859.html
Family, friends offer differing accounts on how Minneapolis teen died in Somalia
St. Paul, Minn. — Conflicting accounts emerged Monday over how Burhan Hassan, a Minneapolis teenager who allegedly went to Somalia to fight with an Islamic terrorist group, was killed in his homeland.
Hassan was fatally shot Friday in Mogadishu, his family said. His uncle, Abdirizak Bihi, blamed the Al-Shabaab militia, saying a member of the group brought Hassan outside of the building where the boy was staying and shot him in the head. Bihi said Burhan's killer likely wanted to make sure the boy wouldn't live to tell U.S. authorities who had radicalized him in the Twin Cities. "Probably those people who recruited him would not have been happy to see him here," said Bihi, whose sister is Hassan's mother. "His re-appearance in the United States, and in Minnesota, would have been a very big, important step into this investigation of the recruited children." Bihi said he learned from contacts in Somalia that Hassan was planning to leave Al-Shabaab and find his way to the U.S. embassy in Nairobi.
The FBI, which has been leading the investigation into the missing men, could not confirm Hassan's death and said it had no information that the teenager was planning to return to the U.S. ..more..http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/06/08/somali_differing_accounts/
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