2 July 2017: the Al Qaida-linked militant group Al-Shabaab has publicly executed two Indian nationals in Jilib district, whom it accused of collaborating with western Intelligence. The unidentified foreign Al-Shabaab fighters who were suspected of being spies were publicly executed in an open square in Jilib town in Middle Jubba region on Sunday. Sources said the two foreign fighters were previously involved in many attacks conducted by al-Shabaab fighters in southern Somalia.

The group didn’t release any statement about the killing of the two Indian nationals. Other sources revealed the two were persuading senior Al-Shabaab commanders to defect to ISIS group but mounting pressure by senior Al-Shabaab leaders against it have blocked the move. The deceased former Al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Godane was reported  to have killed several Al-Shabaab commanders including Ibrhaim Afghani and Abu Mansoor Al Amirki after opposing his ideology. Godane was later killed in U.S. airstrikes in southern Somalia in September 2014. The militant group Al-Shabaab is fighting government forces and allied African Union Peacekeeping Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in a bid to topple the western-backed Somali Federal government in Mogadishu. (Source: Garowe Online)