The FBI is testing the remains of a suicide bomber in Somalia to try to determine whether he was one of at least 21 young Somali-American men believed to have left Minneapolis in recent years to join the terrorist group al-Shabab.
If the remains are confirmed to belong to Abdisalan Hussein Ali, it will mark the third time someone from Minnesota has been involved in a suicide attack in Somalia.
"I don't understand," said Nimco Ahmed, a Somali community leader in Minnesota, home to the nation's largest Somali population. "It's really really painful to actually see one of the kids who has a bright future ahead of them do this. ... It's a loss for our whole society."
Al-Shabab said over the weekend that Abdisalan Taqabalahullaah, whom they identified as a Somali-American, carried out the suicide attack Saturday against an African Union base in Mogadishu. The attack killed 10 people, including the two suicide bombers, a Mogadishu-based security official said.
The militia group posted online a recording purported to be Taqabalahullaah, calling on others to carry out a jihad. Omar Jamal, first secretary of the Somali mission to the United Nations, said friends of Abdisalan Hussein Ali listened to the recording and identified the voice as Ali's.
But other friends told Minnesota Public Radio News the voice is not Ali's, saying his English doesn't match the man's on the recording.
Kyle Loven, an FBI spokesman in Minneapolis, said the bureau is doing a DNA analysis at its lab in Quantico, Va. 
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