Rome, Italy, Jul 10, 2009 / 12:36 pm
The Somali Muslim extremist group Al Shabaab, which is linked to Al Qaeda, has decapitated seven people accused of being Christians and “spies” in the city of Baidoa, Somalia.
According to the AGI news agency, the extremists said they were applying Sharia law in murdering the seven people. Baidoa had been a stronghold for the transitional government that re-gained control of Somalia in 2006 with the help of Ethiopian troops.
Now the government is losing increasingly greater swaths of territory to fundamentalist groups that are beginning to appear in the country. Al Shabaab, which means “youth” in Arabic, had already decapitated three other people in the region last month.
The extremist group seeks to control the country and strictly enforce Muslim law, forcing women to wear burkas and cutting of the hands of those accused of stealing, AGI reports.