Police in Mogadishu, Somalia have arrested three al Shabaab members of an assassination terror cell operating in the country’s capital and its environs. The three have been operating in districts of the capital and conducting targeting kills of prominent members of the Somali community.
The 3 young men identified as Shueb Abdullahi Haji, Ismail Mohamed Aweys and Mohamed Osman Maalim have been operating in Wadajir and Dharkenley district. Preliminary reports indicate that two of them were on a mission to kill a woman, a khat trader while the third was distributing guns to other possible assassins in Mogadishu.
Banaadir regional deputy security officer Mohamed Tuulah said the targeted woman was among the delegates in the last election and currently a khat trader in Mogadishu. Several electoral officials and delegates who participated in the 2016/17 elections have been gunned down in Mogadishu and other parts of the country in the last two years.
The arrests come as the Somali president and security chiefs in the country and capital launched a crackdown against al Shabaab in the capital have the siege attack of last week along Maka al Mukarama Street which killed 25 people and injured 131 others.
