Omar Nabhan Explained

Omar Nabhan
Weapons:AK-47 rifle, grenades, suicide belt
Locations:Westgate shopping mall, Nairobi, Kenya
Birth Date:1998
Death Date:21 September 2013 (aged 14-15)
Death Place:Westgate shopping mall, Nairobi, Kenya
Body Discovered:24 September 2013
Organization: Al-Shabaab
Known For:Westgate shopping mall attack
Fatalities:
  • 62 direct
  • 1 indirect
Injuries:
  • 161 direct
  • 2 indirect
Motive:Islamic terrorism

Yahya Ahmed Osman[1] [2] (1998–21 September 2013), also known by his nom de guerre Omar Nabhan, was a Somali mass murderer and al-Shabaab militant who was one of four perpetrators of the 2013 Westgate shopping mall attack that killed 67 people and injured a further 173. He was killed during the attack.

Life

He was born in 1998. Another militant stated that Nabhan trained and graduated from an Al-Shabaab training camp in the town of Balad in 2009.[3] [4] [5]

Attack

See main article: Westgate shopping mall attack. On 21 September 2013, Nabhan and three other heavily armed men drove to the front entrance of the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya.[6] The four men split into pairs, and Nabhan went with Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow into the mall, where they immediately began to shoot at shoppers in their vicinity. Dhuhulow entered a restaurant where three died, while Nabhan entered a children's shoe store adjacent to it. He fired six bullets into a man, killing him. He fired at victims near Barclays Bank before joining Dhuhulow in the Nakumatt supermarket, where Nabhan and others were captured on CCTV shooting at civilians. The men, including Nabhan, stayed in the supermarket for the rest of the shooting.[7] All four men were later killed.[8]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Center . Combating Terrorism . 2013-10-24 . The Nairobi Attack and Al-Shabab’s Media Strategy . 2024-10-04 . Combating Terrorism Center at West Point . en-US.
  2. Web site: McConnell . Tristan . 2024-10-07 . ‘Close Your Eyes and Pretend to Be Dead’ . 2024-10-04 . Foreign Policy . en-US.
  3. Web site: 2013-10-22 . Sources: Somali Westgate Attacker Trained with Al-Shabab . 2024-10-03 . Voice of America . en.
  4. Web site: 2020-07-02 . Westgate killers: The face of terror . 2024-10-03 . Nation . en.
  5. Web site: McConnell . Tristan . 20 September 2015 . 'Close Your Eyes and Pretend to Be Dead' What really happened two years ago in the bloody attack on Nairobi's Westgate Mall. .
  6. News: Daniel, Douglass K. . 21 September 2013 . 39 people killed in Kenya mall attack claimed by Somali militants; hostages still held . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130922155502/http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/gunmen-use-grenades-open-fire-at-nairobis-most-upscale-mall/2013/09/21/a9403b3a-22a8-11e3-ad1a-1a919f2ed890_story_1.html . 22 September 2013 . 21 September 2013 . The Washington Post . 2 . Associated Press.
  7. News: Petrecca, Laura . Bhatti, Jabeen (Associated Press) . 21 September 2013 . 39 die in Kenya mall siege; hostages still held . USA Today.
  8. News: Jason Straziuso . 13 December 2013 . NYPD report on Kenya attack isn't US gov't view . 18 March 2014 . Associated Press, Yahoo News.