Somalia’s al-Shebab executes four alleged spies

Somalia’s al-Shebab insurgents executed four men on Wednesday in the south-western town of Bardhere after accusing them of espionage. Hundreds of Somalis watched as a firing squad arranged by al-Shebab, which controls the town, shot the four men.

Victims of an al-Shebab attack are moved out of the seaside town of Mpeketoni last year AFP/Stringer

Omar Mohamed Kheyr, who was among the four executed men, was accused of working with the US’s Centrail Intelligence Agency and of helping the execution of a senior al-Shebab leader.

The al-Shebab judge who announced the execution sentence claimed that the CIA had promised Kheyr a reward of one million dollars for the killing of the senior official of the group but said he was intercepted before getting the reward.

"Omar Mohamed Kheyr confessed that he was working for CIA and helped the murder of a senior official of the mujahidin,” he said. “He was pledged by the CIA one million dollars for the murder of the senior official, so he deseverved to taste the bitterness of the death"

The judge did not name the alleged victim of the killing.

According to al-Shebab-run radio Andulus, the other three men were spying for both the Somali and Ethiopian governments.

"They were tied and riddled with bullets as hundreds of residents were forced to watch the execution,"
Ali Osman, a resident of Bardhere who witnessed the execution, told RFI by phone.

Al-Shebab’s Gedo region governor Sheikh Abdurrahman Sayid, where Bardhere is located, told the crowd that there were other suspected spies in custody and that they would be executed soon.

Two other men accused of spying for Somalia's government were executed in the central town of Buq-Aqable of Hiran region.

Al-Shebab has carried out several whippings, amputations and executions in areas it controls to enforce its strict interpretation of Islam.