A military prosecutor was shot dead by Al Shabaab terrorists in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in Somalia on Sunday, officials said. The prosecutor, identified as Abdikarim Hassan Firdiye, was assassinated as he got out of his vehicle outside a restaurant.
This comes a few days after Al Shabaab terrorists killed a regional official's aide and the region's deputy police commander.
"Two teenagers armed with pistols shot him in the head after he got off his car," Reuters quoted a waiter of the restaurant.
"His bodyguards fired back but the killers had already disappeared by then," the waiter added.
Claiming responsibility for the assassination, Al Shabaab spokesperson Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab said, "Today, we killed a prosecutor who had sentenced many teenagers - many boys and girls - to their deaths for alleged links to Al Shabaab."
Al Qaeda-allied Al Shabaab intends to topple Somalia's west-backed government and drive out Africa Union peacekeepers from the troubled nation, which has witnessed over two decades of conflict and chaos.
Somalia will vote for a new President on December 28.
(With inputs from Reuters)Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
