'UK students fighting for al-Qaeda linked terror group'

Updated on: 25 January,2010 08:19 AM IST |
Agencies |

Muslim students, some from Britain's top universities, are travelling to Somalia to fight with a terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda

Muslim students, some from Britain's top universities, are travelling to Somalia to fight with a terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda. A dozen students, including a female medical researcher, are said to have joined al-Shabaab, an extremist rebel organisation blamed for hundreds of deaths in the east African state, the Sunday Times reported yesterday.

Somali community leaders in the UK say students from the London School of Economics, Imperial College and King's College London are among those who have been recruited within the past year. The youngest recruit is believed to be 18.

'Al-Shabaab' -- Arabic for The Youth -- wants to impose sharia across Somalia and is engaged in a violent struggle against the country's western-backed government. Experts regard it as an African franchise of al-Qaeda.

One LSE graduate, who grew up in Britain, is said to have called his pregnant wife from Mogadishu, the Somali capital, telling her, "I am here defending my country and my rights. Look after my daughter. I don't think I will see you again."

An investigation by the newspaper into the terrorist "pipeline" to Somalia substantiates claims that Britain has become a breeding ground for al-Qaeda. Security services have suggested that at least two dozen Britons have gone to Somalia to take up arms and even become suicide bombers, but community leaders believe the figure could be over 100.