4th Somali-American dead in Somalia, called the “recruiter” in yesterday’s NYT article

Update July 14th:  Note that Mr. Maruf’s sister has left a comment, I write about it here.

Oh my gosh, unbelievable!  The 4th Somali-American missing from Minneapolis is dead in Somalia.   Zakaria Maruf died Saturday according to the Star Tribune this morning.  Hat tip: a friend from Tennessee.

I just wrote about Maruf last night, here, in response to the lengthy discussion about him by Andrea Elliot at the New York Times also yesterday.

From the Star Tribune:

For the second time in two days, a Somali man from Minneapolis has been reported killed in his war-torn homeland, a relative confirmed Sunday.

Zakaria Maruf, 30, who is believed to have been among the first wave of young Somali men to leave Minnesota for Somalia over the past two years, was killed Saturday in Mogadishu, the relative said.

Maruf is the fourth Somali man from the Twin Cities to have died in Somalia since October.

The NYT story called Maruf the “recruiter.”   Here is a bio of him and several others of the missing youths from the NYT yesterday.  This is what I reported last night that he said in an interview some months ago:

In the interview, Maruf implies that his participation in the fighting was motivated by religion, not patriotism. Maruf said he and his friends heard the call of Allah, and they accepted it.

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it, did Mr. Maruf talk too much?  I guess his “recruiting” days are over (if he ever really was the recruiter)!

For new readers, we have followed the Somali missing youths story since last November, see links here to all of our posts on the topic.