Twitter shuts down account of Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab, again

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The flagship Twitter account of al-Shabab, Somalia's al-Qaida-linked terror group, was closed Friday for the second time this year, less than 24 hours after a U.S.-based terrorism expert reported violations of Twitter's terms of service.

The closure comes only days after al-Shabab claimed a failed assassination attempt against Somalia's president and tweeted that the next time the president wouldn't be so lucky.

Al-Shabab uses Twitter mainly to make claims of enemy kills and to spread its view of events in Somalia and East Africa. A United Nations report on Somalia released last month said U.N. experts believe the person running the English-language account is a British member of al-Shabab.

Twitter in January suspended al-Shabab's previous account two days after the group used the platform to announce a death threat against Kenyan hostages. Twitter's terms of service says it does not allow specific threats of violence against others in its posts.

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