Somalia’s National Intelligence Service Agency intercepted a minibus carrying 25 people, including minors, who are seeking to join Al-Shabaab militant group; the driver and two others suspected of facilitating the recruitment are detained.
According to the agency, the people were apprehended in Afgoye town in the Lower Shabelle region after a tip about their travel plans. It went on to say that the security forces had also apprehended the vehicle’s driver and two accomplices who were facilitating the recruitment.
The Somali government announced last month that it had killed 1,650 al-Shabaab terrorists and injured over 550 others in a series of military operations in the south-central regions over the previous two months. At least 19 high-level terrorists were killed in the operations in Galmudug and Hirshabelle states.
In August this year, the spy agency arrested individuals linked to the leak of information from government agencies, in the latest crackdown within the country’s capital, Mogadishu. In a tweet, NISA confirmed arresting 10 suspected spies, just weeks after it was established that the militants still have contacts with individuals in government, including after an attack at the 14th October army training center, which left at least 25 trainees dead.
