Twitter has for the second time this year shut down the main Twitter handle of al-Shabab, Somalia's al-Qaida-linked terror group, 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 account is British.
Twitter in January suspended al-Shabab's previous account after the group used the platform to announce a death threat against Kenyan hostages.