{Somalia\u2019s al-Qaeda-linked rebel group, al-Shabab, has returned to the social media networking site Twitter more than two months after their last account was suspended, an official for the group told Al Jazeera.}<\/p>\n
On Monday, a message was posted on the social media site under the handle of @HSM_INFO carrying the standard signature of the group.<\/p>\n
“The aim is to vigorously challenge defamatory reports in the media by presenting an accurate portrayal of the current state of Jihad in Somalia and countering Western, state-sponsored propaganda machines that are paid to demonise the Mujahideen,” an official for al-Shabab, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
The Somali government, which has borne the brunt of most of al-Shabab attacks, has called on Twitter to ban the group.<\/p>\n
Abdirahman Omar Osman, a Somali government spokesman, told Al Jazeera that the government was opposed to al-Shabab being back on the social media site.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople like this should not be given the platform to mislead the youth. They should be banned,” he said.<\/p>\n
In September, Twitter suspended at least six accounts belonging to al-Shabab after the group, which claimed responsibility for the attack on Nairobi’s Westgate mall, mocked the Kenyan government\u2019s response to the four-day siege that left more than 60 people dead.<\/p>\n
According to Twitter\u2019s policy on abusive behaviour, \u201cUsers may not make direct, specific threats of violence against others.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesman for the networking site told Al Jazeera, “We do not comment on individual accounts, for security and privacy reasons.”<\/p>\n
Al-Shabab first joined Twitter in late 2011 after Kenyan forces moved into southern Somalia. Early tweets by al-Shabab mocked a Twitter posting by Kenya’s army spokesman, Maj Emmanuel Chirchir, that threatened to bomb concentrations of donkeys that might be moving weapons for the rebels.<\/p>\n
Al-Shabab who still carry out attacks in Somalia have been losing territory to the UN-backed Somali government and AMISOM – the African Union peacekeepers – in the past two years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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