a dozen young men of Somali descent have disappeared from the Minneapolis area in recent months . At least three , including Bana , have ended up dead in Somalia , community leaders say . Watch the harrowing saga of Jamal Bana '' Bana was the kind of son a modest immigrant family pins its hopes on . He was the eldest of seven and studying engineering at local colleges . But last fall , his family said , he disappeared without any warning . A few days later , the phone rang . All that could be heard was a quick sentence . `` I 'm in Somalia , '' his mother quoted him as saying . He then hung up . Communication from then on was scarce . In calls or text messages , the family said , Bana was guarded , as though someone was watching or listening to him . On July 11 , the family received the call telling them to look on the Internet . Bana 's father broke down in tears when he saw the photos . One image was a close-up of his son 's face , a bullet wound on one
MINNEAPOLIS , Minnesota -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Abayte Ahmed and her husband learned of their son 's death in the most heinous fashion . A family acquaintance called and told them to click on an Internet site . There on the screen were photographs of their 20-year-old son -- the boy with the movie-star looks -- shot through the head thousands of miles away in Somalia . Jamal Bana died in Somalia . Several missing Somali-Americans are believed to have fought there . `` He must have been somewhat disillusioned and indoctrinated , because he did n't have any clue about Somalia at all , '' his mother said , fighting back tears and barely able to speak about her eldest son . Jamal Bana had been missing for months from his Minneapolis home . His family is still grappling with the circumstances surrounding his death in a land they had fled -- an African nation wracked by chaos and violence . The FBI said Bana 's death is part of a sweeping federal investigation into a recruiting effort in the United States by a Somali terrorist group called Al-Shabaab , which has ties to al Qaeda . More than