Al-Shabab joins Twitter to reach world

Tue Dec 20, 2011 2:39PM

This combination image made from images downloaded from the Internet on Monday, Dec. 12, 2011.

Somalia's al-Shabab group has opened a Twitter account, following the invasion of the African state by the Kenyan military.

Al-Shabab has been tweeting about its attacks against the Kenyan military over the past two weeks. 

With more than 5,000 followers, al-Shabab tweets are in English, not Somali, and are clearly meant for an outside audience. 

Twitter, which is based in San Francisco, has about 100 million users. A company spokesman, Matt Graves, declined to comment on the al-Shabab case. 

In October, Kenya dispatched soldiers over its border into Somalia to pursue al-Shabab, which it accuses of being behind the kidnapping of several foreigners in its territory. Al-Shabab has denied any such involvement. 

Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed has said his UN-backed transitional government was opposed to the military incursion, which is reportedly being contributed to by the US and France. 

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. 

AGB/HGH/IS