Al Shabab Opens New Twitter Account

by VOA News

Somali insurgent group al-Shabab has opened a new Twitter account in English, 10 days after its previous account on the social media site was suspended.

The group opened the new account Sunday with a series of messages, including one that said silencing al-Shabab on Twitter only highlights the group's cause and justifies the actions of mujahideen.

The al-Shabab English account was shut down late last month, after the group used the service to announce it had killed a French hostage and showed graphic photos of a French soldier killed during a rescue attempt.

The insurgents also used Twitter to release a video in which they threatened to kill a group of Kenyan hostages.

Al-Shabab's Arabic and Somali-language accounts were not suspended.

As of Monday, the group's new English-language account still had fewer than 1,000 followers.

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