SOMALIA: PUNTLAND COURT SENTENCES FOUR SUSPECTED MILITANTS TO DEATH

February 16, 2015: A court in Puntland, a semiautonomous region northern Somalia, sentenced four suspected militants to death after being convicted of fighting troops in the region, officials said. The four convicts are parts of eight men accused of being members of the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabab group who receives various sentences. The four others received different jail terms including life
sentences. Al-Shabab announced it moved some of its fighters to the region, in an attempt to set up a new base in Puntland which is close to the Yemen where Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is fighting troops and Shiite Houthi militias who took over Yemen after overthrowing the government. (Sources: Hiiraan Online, 16/02/2015)