NAIROBI – The Twitter account of Somalia’s Al Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents was suspended Friday, the second time this year the Islamists have been pushed off the site.
A message from Twitter on the English-language @HSMPress1 account read that the account was suspended, without elaborating.
Earlier this week the group used the site to claim they had ambushed the convoy of war-torn Somalia’s internationally backed President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
“Next time, you won’t be as lucky,” the Islamists tweeted after their attack, which the president escaped unharmed.
Twitter warns that accounts can be suspended if users publish “direct, specific threats of violence against others”.
Users are also blocked if they use Twitter “for any unlawful purposes or in furtherance of illegal activities”.
The Shebab’s previous account, @HSMPress, was suspended in January after the group posted photographs of a French commando they killed and threatened to execute Kenyan hostages.