Death of U.S. jihadist in Somalia shocks family

By Abdiaziz Hassan

NAIROBI (Reuters) - The mother of an American national of Somali origin killed fighting for Islamist rebels in Mogadishu collapsed after seeing images of her dead son being paraded in the street, the man's uncle said on Tuesday.

The body of Jamal Ahmed Bana, 20, was displayed semi-naked with a bullet hole in his head in Mogadishu at the weekend after battles between al Shabaab insurgents and government forces backed by African Union (AU) troops.

Relatives in Minneapolis, a city in the U.S. Midwest that is home to the largest Somali-American community, identified him from photos on the internet taken by Somali media.

The Somali government says foreign fighters are leading the Islamist insurgency, and there is increasing international concern at the influx of hundreds of jihadists into Somalia -- from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Gulf region and western nations including the United States and Britain.

Some, like Bana, are immigrants of Somali origin. Bana was fighting for al Shabaab when he was killed along with roughly 40 other rebels on Saturday, said his uncle, Omar Ahmed Sheikh.

Sheikh said his nephew, a former engineering student at Minnesota's Hennepin Technical College, was misled by clerics in Minneapolis and persuaded to go to Somalia in November 2008.

"They told him they would teach him Islamic religion ... But they are terrorists and cannot claim they are Muslims."

Sheikh said Bana's mother, Somali-born Abayte Ahmed Sheikh, was rushed to hospital on Monday after seeing the pictures.