Al-Shabaab: Somali jihadist group claims to have executed British spy by firing squad

Eyewitnesses say men were tied to poles and shot after being sentenced to death

Al-Shabaab militants announced late on Tuesday the group had executed five people it believed were spies (AP)

Somali-based militant group al-Shabaab has executed five men it claims were spying for British, US and Somali intelligence agencies.

The east African jihadist faction announced via radio that the killings had taken place in a public square in Jilib, a town in the Middle Jubba region, late on Tuesday.

Eyewitnesses reported the men were tied to poles and shot by a firing squad shortly after a self-proclaimed judge sentenced them to death.

Mohamed Abu Abdalla, al-Shabaab’s governor for Jubba, told Reuters news agency a 32-year-old British man named Awale Ahmed Mohamed was among those killed by forces.

“[He] spied for MI6 and he came from Britain to Somalia to establish Islamic State,” Mr Abdalla added.

Al-Shabaab claims three of the men spied for the US and helped guide drones to carry out strikes in Somalia, while another supposedly worked for the Somali government.

The UK, US and Somali governments have yet to respond to the reports. The Independent has contacted the Foreign Office for comment.

Founded in 2006, al-Shabaab is sub-Saharan Africa’s deadliest jihadi group, operating mainly in Somalia but also known to conduct attacks in neighbouring Kenya.

Members of the organisation are aiming to overthrow Somalia’s weak but UN-backed government and impose strict Islamic law based on the ultra-conservative Wahhabi doctrine.

The al-Qaeda-affiliated group’s grip on the African nation has been weakening since it was pushed out of the capital, Mogadishu, by African Union peacekeepers in 2011.

However, despite losing territory in recent years, al-Shabaab continues to carry out deadly attacks within Somalia, including a truck bombing in October 2017 that killed more than 500 people.

The Somali government and US military have been beefing up an offensive against the group in recent weeks.

US drones often carry out strikes against the militants, with the Pentagon announcing it killed one jihadist fighter in an air strike in southern Somalia over the weekend.

Additional reporting by agencies