Al Shabaab executes 5 men accused of spying, including Somali British citizen

Somalia’s Al Shabaab Islamists shot five men in a public execution on Tuesday, including a Somali British citizen, who were accused of spying, Reuters reported. “Five of them were publicly shot to death this afternoon after they admitted espionage before the court,” said Mohamed Abu Abdalla, Al Shabaab’s governor for the Jubba regions. “Awale Ahmed Mohamed, 32, spied for MI6 and he came from Britain to Somalia to establish Islamic State,” he said late on Tuesday. Three of the men spied for the US and helped guide drones to carry out strikes in Somalia, while a fourth spied for the Somali government, he added. The execution is seen as a sign of the insurgents’ control of southern swathes of the country, even as authorities step up efforts to combat them. Al Shabaab’s grip on the Horn of Africa nation has been weakening since it was pushed out of the capital by African Union peacekeepers in 2011. The government and the US military are beefing up an offensive against the group.