NISA-al-Shabaab partnered bombings kill 50 including a critic female lawmaker in Somalia

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NISA-al-Shabaab partnered bombings kill 50 including a critic female lawmaker in Somalia

BELEDWEYNE (HORN OBSERVER) The National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) partnered with the militant group al-Shabaab to carry out deadly bombings in central Somalia on Wednesday, according to security experts and police sources.

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Government and opposition officials gather for the funeral prayer of slain female lawmaker Amina Mohamed Abdi and a clan elder killed in Beledweyne on Thursday. | PHOTO OFFICIAL.

BELEDWEYNE (HORN OBSERVER) The National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) partnered with the militant group al-Shabaab to carry out deadly bombings in central Somalia on Wednesday, according to security experts and police sources.

At least 50 were killed and about 108 injured, according to the region's president, Ali Abdullahi Hussein (known as Gudlawe) as he gave a televised speech. "We strongly condemn this barbaric attack,” he added.

Police said a lone suicide bomber first targeted a female lawmaker, Amina Mohamed Abdi, who is seeking re-election in the ongoing parliamentary contest, at premises of the presidential palace. Amina, an outspoken critic to president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo’s regime, was killed alongside 20 others including her clan elder and security guards. Minutes later, a seven-seater Toyota vehicle loaded with explosives was detonated at the entrance of the local hospital as injured persons were rushed to the facility.

"When the wounded persons were taken to the hospital, a second car bomb exploded at the entrance of Beledweyne Hospital in an attempt to maximize the death toll,” Hiraan Regional Police Commander Isak Ali Abdulle said.

HOW THE ATTACK HAPPENED

Around 7:30pm local time, a young man in a Somali military uniform who had access to the presidential palace blew up his suicide vest as he approached the female lawmaker. According to the local police, the man was waiting for the lawmaker since the afternoon and had even taken his afternoon tea at the nearby tea shop.

"This man was inside the palace and had extracted with other officers. He sat at the tea shop where he had his tea since the afternoon. It’s unbelievable that he blew up himself,” the police officer who gave his initial as Mohamed told Horn Observer.

On Thursday, the al-Qaeda-linked militant group al-Shabaab took credit of the bombings. The group said it had targeted apostate government officials in Beledweyne. In a two-pager statement, the terror group also claimed responsibility of the attack that killed at least five in the heavily-fortified Mogadishu International Airport, a facility that also hosts western embassies and United Nations mission early on Wednesday.

However, several Somali security experts including current and former police officers in Hirshabelle hesitated that the bombings in Beledweyne were solely carried by al-Shabaab. The bombings were a partnership joint work between NISA and al-Shabaab, they say.

Hirshabelle police, for instance, said they have been investigating a report about 10 unidentified officers deployed into Beledweyne days ago. "They are NISA officers. They entered Beledweyne days ago. We are investigating the driver of their vehicle from the airport,” said officer Mohamed.

Abdisalan Guled, a former deputy commander of NISA, told local media that the Mogadishu Airport Attack had a direct connection to the Beledweyne attack.

"NISA did it but al-Shabaab had taken credit of it,” he explains. Similarly, Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble said he has no doubt that the attacks in Mogadishu and Beledweyne were corelated and well-coordinated.

Roble said it seemed clear to him that the female lawmaker Amina was targeted because of her role in the struggle for justice for the late Ikraan Tahalil, a female NISA employee who was abducted and went missing mid last year on the hands of the national intelligence.

Amina herself knew that she was a target of the government security services and had even shared her fears with the police, according to a Beledweyne-based officer.

"This attack was an attempt to disrupt justice and discourage anyone who speaks for the cause of the justice,” prime minister Roble while promising to pursue justice for both victims.

The partnership between al-Shabaab and the Somali national intelligence has been on the public domain for years. The government's long-running battle to subdue the al-Qaida-linked militants has been hobbled by al-Shabab's infiltration of government agencies, offices and security teams.

In April 2019, authorities arrested the commissioner of Mahaas, a town in central Somalia, for facilitating an al-Shabab bombing that killed the commissioner's deputy.

In 2016, a Mogadishu court convicted Abdiweli Mohamed Maow, the head of Mogadishu airport security, for helping to smuggle a laptop computer bomb onto a outbound flight. The bomb exploded 15 minutes after takeoff but miraculously failed to bring down the plane, which safely returned to the Mogadishu airport.

In the worst case, a top official in Somalia's National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), Abdisalam Mohamed Hassan, was found guilty in 2014 of providing photos of agents and other identifying data to al-Shabab.

Besides those unsettling facts, the assassination of former Mogadishu mayor Abdirahman Omar Osman highlighted the cold, hard reality of how al-Shabab had built its own entity within the Somali national intelligence.