Somalia's Al-Shabaab executes suspected CIA, MI6 spies

Radical Somali Islamist group Al-Shabaab has executed three men it claimed were spies for American and British intelligence groups CIA and MI6.

The men were killed by firing squad Sunday in Marka town, some 110 kilometres south of the capital Mogadishu.

An Al-Shabaab court found the men guilty of providing information to foreigners.

"The three men were found guilty of spying on the Islamists in favour of America’s CIA and Britain’s MI6,” Sheikh Abdu-al-Haq, the chief judge of Al-Shabaab court in Lower Shabelle region said at a public gathering.

The information had led to the killing of local and foreign Jihadists in Somalia by Americans, he said.

The judge claimed that one of the men was from Hargeisa, which he labelled as MI6's headquarters in Somalia. Hargeisa is the capital of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland in the north-western regions of Somalia.

Sheikh Al-Haq said that the other two suspected spies helped in the killing of Bilal al-Barjawi (a Jihadist hailing from Lebanon but holding a British passport) in Mogadishu who was hit by a drone earlier this year.

"The two men admitted to have attached a device into the vehicle used by Al-Barjawi," he said.

The executed men were also accused of facilitating the killing of two Jihadists in February by fire from drones at Lambar Lixdan (K60) Area, a location 60 km south of Mogadishu.

"The men were also found guilty of guiding the operations that killed courageous Jihadists, Abu Ahmed (from Morocco) and Abu Bakar al-Markawi (from Marka town, south of Mogadishu),” stated the judge.

The group, which earlier this year allied itself to Al-Qaeda, claimed that is was gaining the upper hand against foreign missions.

"The seizing, sentencing and execution of these spies is an indication that we (Al-Shabaab loyalists) are capable of neutralising spy missions,” said Sheikh Mohamed Abu Abdalla, the Al-Shabaab Wali (governor) of the region.

Radiyo Muqdisho, a state-run broadcaster in the Somali capital Mogadishu, reported early Monday that the executed men were former Al-Shabaab militants.

In the past, Al-Shabaab courts have sentence and put to death men and women accused of spying for countries supporting the TFG including Ethiopia, Kenya, USA and Britain.

Others have been accused of spying for Israel.