Breaking: American al-Qaeda member in Yemen shootout

Sharif Mobley

A New Jersey man shot two men at a hospital in Yemen over the weekend after being arrested in the company of several al-Qaeda members. Sharif Mobley, 26, was quietly detained earlier this year by Yemeni authorities. News is only now leaking out that a native-born American citizen was arrested for helping al-Qaeda in Yemen.

Reports from Yemen indicate Mobley killed one guard and seriously injured another after. He was moved to a medical lockup by Yemeni intelligence for unknown reasons. While in custody of the intelligence services in a Yemeni hospital, Mobley somehow managed to get his hands on a gun.

The obvious question: What was a 26-year-old African-American guy from Buena, a working-class suburb of Atlantic City, doing with al-Qaeda in Yemen?

We know this much:

Mobley traveled to Yemen in 2009. He was detained sometime between late January and March when Yemeni intelligence services conducted a raid on suspected al-Qaeda members. In media reports, Mobley was initially identified as a Somali-American. Given that the suspect’s father is named Charles Mobley, this is extremely unlikely.

The suspect’s mother, unnamed in media reports, last spoke to her son in January:

Mobley’s mother didn’t want to speak on camera, but told us that the accusations are completely false and that her son is not a terrorist. “I haven’t talked to him or seen him in a couple of years,” said Bass, “anything can happen, people change so quickly, and this world, it’s just a crazy place anymore. It’s really scary.”

Mobley’s mother who spoke to us inside her Buena home says the last time she spoke to her son, it was late January, and he was in Yemen. While she does confirm that they were recently visited by the FBI, she says her son is an excellent person who’s never been in trouble and is a good Muslim.

According to the suspect’s friend Michael Brothman, Mobley was an anime fan who was on the Buena Regional High School wrestling team.
The interesting thing: Mobley’s parents were recently questioned by the Baltimore office of the FBI, presumably after the Yemeni authorities captured him. Why did the agents from Baltimore travel all the way to Atlantic City instead of letting the nearby Philadelphia office handle the investigation?

An interesting story and, of course, there will be more.