Somalia: Mogadishu intelligence chief sacked

Somalia’s spy chief in the capital Mogadishu was sacked Tuesday just days after a terrorist group targeted a heavily fortified compound in Mogadishu, local media reported.

“National intelligence chief Fahad Yassin sacked Banadir region intelligence chief Ibrahim Badiyow and appointed Isse Mohamed Isse” to replace him, local media Hiran Online said.

National intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) officials who spoke to Anadolu Agency on the phone on condition of anonymity confirmed the sacking but gave no reason for it.

Badiyow “was well educated and well liked at the agency,” one NISA official told Anadolu Agency.

The firing follows Sunday’s mortar shell attack by al-Qaeda-affiliated terror group al-Shabaab on Mogadishu’s fortified compound, Halane, which houses the UN, African Union, European Union, and Western embassies including the U.S. and U.K.

Al-Shabaab claimed there were casualties, but none were reported by institutions inside the protected zone.

Weeks ago, Somalia’s police chief sacked Mogadishu’s Wadajir district police commissioner after mortar shells targeted the same compound, wounding several people. Al-Shabaab also claimed responsibility for that attack.