American al-Shabaab commander Omar Hammami has released two new recordings in defiance of reports that he was killed in an anti-terror offensive in Somalia on March 8. One recording, "Send me a Cruise [missile]," mocks American drone attacks and wishes for quick martyrdom.
"Send me a cruise [missile], with a couple of TAMS [missiles], and a predator drone, with a paradise missile," the refrain goes. Omar Hammami, also known as Abu Mansour al Amriki, chimes in that it isn't "do or die, it's do or paradise, victory in this life or forever the lie." He also expresses hope that he will receive the same death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, both terrorist leaders killed by U.S. military action in recent years.
"There is nothing as sweet as the taste of a tank shell, but it might compare to being where the mortar fell," he sang, hoping that his "family rejoices" at his decision "and follows me in what I do." However, Hammami's southern Baptist mother in Daphne, Alabama is hoping that he will turn his back on terror. "We're just hoping and praying that he will come to see things differently," she said. "It's just God and a lot of prayers."
Hammami's rap song, which features no music as per the tradition of traditional Islamic 'nasheeds,' has been one of the tools that the senior al-Shabaab recruiter has used to draw young expatriates back to Somalia. Recently, several young Somali Canadians, including the first recorded case of recruitment of young women, traveled to Somalia to fight for the organization.