Al-Shabaab executes alleged U.S. spies

Al-Shabaab on Sunday said it has publicly executed four men accused of spying for other governments, including the United States.

The Islamic extremist group said its Sharia court in southern Somalia’s Jamame town found the men guilty of working with the countries’ intelligence agencies.

Al-Shabaab’s al-Andalus radio said the court accused Ahmed Ibrahim of spying for neighboring Kenya. Abdullahi Omar Hassan faced charges for working with the Somali government. Yusuf Makaran and Siyad Ali Abdi both faced accusations of working with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Abdi’s charges also included helping the U.S. military carry out airstrikes that killed about 100 al-Shabaab fighters in March.

“The four men admitted they were spies,” Mohamed Abu Abdalla, the terror group’s regional governor, told Reuters.

Somalia’s Garowe Online said the terror group gathered the town’s residents in an open square to watch the men’s execution. Al-Shabaab threatened residents with similar punishment if they choose to work with intelligence officials.

Somali-based al-Shabaab has plagued the country and its neighboring regions since 2006. The extremist group has launched attacks on African Union peacekeeping bases and countries that contribute to the force, including Kenya and Ethiopia. Al-Shabaab has continued with attacks on hotels in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital city, as well as sporadic attacks elsewhere in the country. The group has lost much of its territory but still flogs and executes dissidents in areas under its control.

Last month, al-Shabaab said it publicly executed three men accused of spying for the CIA and Kenya. The judge accused the men of assisting the U.S. military by marking targets for drone strikes and collecting information on the militants, among other charges.

Ebrahim Deen, a researcher with the South Africa-based Afro Middle East Center, said al-Shabaab often has used insignificant evidence to condemn people as spies—intimidating others who might try to oppose the group.

“Al-Shabaab uses it to crack down on dissidents,” Deen said. “It has publicly executed people to scare others.”