Canada lists Somali group as terror organization

OTTAWA - A Somali-based Islamic group that has tried to radicalize and recruit young Canadians has been listed as a terrorist organization in Canada.

Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews said Sunday that the government's decision to ban Al-Shabaab was aimed at protecting Canadian families from the activities of this organization.

The listing prohibits all persons in Canada as well as every Canadian abroad from knowingly dealing with assets owned or controlled by Al Shabaab, Toews said in a news release.

Al-Shabaab, banned in many Western countries, is the most active group targeting Somalia's impotent transitional government.

Toews said the government received reports from the Somali community that Al Shabaab has attempted to radicalize and recruit young Canadians.

Meanwhile, the FBI is investigating the disappearance of about 20 young Somali men who left Minneapolis over the last two years for Somalia, presumably to join Al-Shabaab.

• 

  A youth leads a group of hard-line Islamist Al Shabab fighters as they conduct military exercises in northern Mogadishu's Suqaholaha neighborhood, Somalia, Friday Jan. 1, 2010. The group's senior official said the young fighters have recently completed training to join what they said to be a global war against the enemy of Allah. (AP Photo/ Farah Abdi Warsameh)