Feisal Omar / Reuters

American born Islamist militant fighter Omar Hammami, also known as Abu Mansur Al-Amriki, addresses a news conference at a farm in southern Mogadishu's Afgoye district on Wednesday, May 11. Amriki and four other foreign fighters in Somalia spoke at the gathering and vowed to avenge the death of Osama Bin Laden.

AP reports from Mogadishu, Somalia: An American fighting for an al-Qaida linked militant group in wartorn Somalia is threatening to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden.

Omar Hammami, known as Abu Mansur al-Amriki, or "the American," said Wednesday that bin Laden's death does not mean the end of attacks against U.S. interests.

Hammami is among hundreds of foreign fighters in the ranks of the al-Shabab, Somalia's most dangerous militant group, that is trying to topple the country's weak U.N.-backed government.

Al-Shabab carried out its first international attack last July in Uganda, killing 76 people watching the World Cup final in two bomb explosions.

Hammami grew up in the middle-class town of Daphne, Alabama, before joining the militants in 2007.

In a profile last year, The New York Times dubbed him "The Jihadist Next Door" because of his unlikely journey from a Southern Baptist upbringing to a key post in an Islamist guerrilla army.

Farah Abdi Warsameh / AP

Omar Hammami, right, and deputy leader of al-Shabab Sheik Mukhtar Abu Mansur Robow, left, sit under a banner which reads 'Allah is Great' as they speak at a press conference in Afgoye, Mogadishu on May 11.

See our slideshows of Osama bin Laden's compound and world reaction to his death.

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• FBI: Uganda attacks signal terror group potential
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• Counterterrorism chief declares al-Qaida 'in the past'