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SOMALIA: ISLAMIST REBELS EXECUTE TWO FOR ‘SPYING’
October 25, 2009: Somalia's Al Shabaab Islamist movement publicly executed two young men by firing squad for alleged spying for the Somali government in the southern town of Marka. An official from the group told crowds who gathered to watch the punishment that the men had "confessed to the crime."
"These two young men were involved in spying against our Islamic administration," Sheikh Suldan, an al Shabaab official, told reporters in Marka, 100 km (62 miles) south of Mogadishu.
"We have been holding them for three months. We investigated and they confessed."
Witnesses said al Shabaab fighters used loudspeakers to summon residents to an open area near the port, where hundreds gathered to watch the grisly spectacle.
One witness in Marka, Ali Hussein, said by telephone that residents were forced to watch the pair killed by firing squad.
"The two teenagers were accused of spying, but we cannot judge if they were guilty for ourselves," Hussein told Reuters.
"One of the boys did not die easily, so about eight masked al Shabaab men went close and opened fire on him. Soon his body looked like chopped-up meat because of the many gunshots." (Sources: Reuters South Africa, 25/10/2009)
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