S. Jersey man arrested in al-Qaeda sweep

A U.S. citizen who was under FBI investigation in Delaware was arrested last week with suspected al-Qaeda members in Yemen, then killed a guard while trying to escape, a Yemeni government official said yesterday.

Sharif Mobley was born and raised in Buena Borough, N.J., a tiny western Atlantic County farming community, and later lived in Philadelphia and Newark, Del. Yemeni authorities said he could face murder charges.

"He has blood on his hands," said Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman for the Yemeni embassy in Washington.

Albasha said Mobley was arrested last week during a sweep of al-Qaeda operatives with close ties to an Alabama-born extremist based in Somalia, Abu Mansour, known as "The American," and the group al-Shabaab, or "The Youth."

The FBI has been tracking young Somali-American men who have allegedly joined al-Shabaab in Somalia; at least 14 from the Minneapolis area have been indicted on terrorism charges.

Mobley's ethnic background could not be confirmed yesterday, but FBI spokesman Rich Wolf said that Mobley was under investigation in the United States. Law enforcement sources said the investiation was terror-related and centered on Mobley's activities while he lived in Newark, Del. A Justice Department spokesman, Dean Boyd, declined to comment.

The suspect's father, Charles Mobley, told the Associated Press at the family's home in Buena Borough: "I can tell you this: He's no terrorist."

The primary source of information about Mobley yesterday was supplied by Alabasha, the Yemeni government spokesman in Washington.

According to Albasha, Mobley was hospitalized after a government sweep of al-Qaeda suspects in the capital city of San'a. Albasha said he didn't know the nature of Mobley's treatment at Republican Hospital there.

At the hospital, the government spokesman said, Mobley grabbed a guard's weapon and fired.

"He attempted to escape the hospital grounds and killed a security agent and severely injured another one," Albasha said. "Moments later, agents rushed to the scene and he was apprehended."

Since January, when Mansour, the American jihadist, pledged to send more foreign fighters from Somalia, Yemen has tried to tighten its borders.

"We've stopped issuing visas at the airport and stepped border surveillance," Albasa said. "We've stepped up surveillance at our schools because that's where foreigners go to learn Arabic."

Mobley travelled from Delaware to Yemen to learn Arabic, a former neighbor in Newark, Del., Imam Abdel-Hadi Shehata, told the Associated Press. Shehata said he met Mobley at his mosque, the Islamic Society of Delaware.

In Buena Borough, N.J., the tiny western Atlantic County farming community where Mobley grew up, residents seemed shocked to learn today that the young man who had been a high school football and wrestling standout was now being labeled a terrorist.

"He was a nice kid, he's not someone you'd expect to do something like this," said John Formisano, who owns a farm along Plymouth Road where Mobley apparently lived.

Antoinette Penza, a former neighbor whose children used to play with Mobley, said: "It's hard to imagine that someone from here would be part of something like that."

"They would ride bikes together, play ball, stuff like that," Penza said. "He seemed like a regular kid. If he stood out at all, it was because he had a very outgoing personality, always smiling, always saying something funny."

Lisa Moore, who said she graduated Buena Regional High School with Mobley in 2002, remembered him as a "fun, outgoing kid" who liked to be the center of attention.

"I can't imagine the kid I knew doing something like that. But I guess people can change."

At the Mobley house yesterday, a yellow, gray-trimmed two-story, the blinds were drawn and no one came to the door after repeated attempts to speak with the occupants, who had been seen arriving and parking inside a two-car garage.

This is not the first time this relatively quiet corner of Atlantic County has been linked to terrorism.

In 2007, Agron Abdullahu, of neighboring Buena Vista Township, was arrested with five other men in a plot to attack Fort Dix military base in Burlington County. Abudullahu, who had worked as a baker in a Williamstown supermarket, pleaded guilty to providing weapons to illegal immigrants and was sentenced to 20 months in prison in 2008.