Somali terror group al-Shahab planned to develop chemical weapons

A Brooklyn federal court has alleged that former British al-Shahab's aid was helping the Somali terror group to develop chemical weapons for use in military operations.

The revelations emerged in the case of Madhi Hashi, who is facing terror charges after he was arrested last year while travelling from Somalia to Yemen, just days after the terror group carried out the Nairobi mall massacre.

Prosecutors alleged that Hashi is a chemical weapons expert who was in the process of helping his organization develop deadly weapons, the New York Post reports.

Hashi and his co-defendants were planning to carry out attacks against the United States and Western interests in that region, the prosecutors added.

However, Hashi has denied any involvement in terror-related activities.

Al-Shahab group started in 2006 as a military offshoot of a radical Islamic movement which then governed parts of Somalia, but officially allied itself with al Qaeda in 2012 after being designated as a terrorist group by the government in 2008.