Bossaso Cops Arrest a man over Al-Shabaab links

Police in Bossaso town of the semi-autonomous regional state have arrested a man suspected be Al-Shabaab member and recovered a pistol from him.

The man, identified as Ethiopian Oromo, was apprehended from a house in one Bossaso neighbourhoods when the pistol discovered Sunday, police said.

He was alone at the time of the arrest.

Bossaso police commandant, Abdirisack Af-gaduud said the man wanted to carry out assassination attacks in the town.

“This Oromo suspected to be Al-Shabaab member and as you can see this pistol is his, he wanted to carry out assassination attacks in the town but the police foiled the attack” said Af-gaduud.

The arrest and the recovery came days after Al-Shabaab carried out suicide attack at a hotel in the central town of Galkayo in which six people died, including a senior local government official.

Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab rebels — who are fighting to overthrow the country’s internationally-backed government — said they carried out the attack, in a statement broadcast on the insurgents’ Radio Andalus.

“The mujahedeen fighters targeted the head of the finances for Puntland in the Mudug region, and together with five of his security guards they were killed in the attack,” the radio broadcast said quoting Shabaaab commanders.

Galkayo, which straddles the border between the two districts of Puntland and Galmudug, lies some 650 kilometres (400 miles) northeast of the capital Mogadishu.

Early last month Puntland forces engaged weeklong fighting in Gara’ad district that lives 120 Al-Shabaab fighters and Puntland soldiers.

In the fighting captured over fifty Al-Shabaab fighters who were paraded to media after the conclusion of the clashes.