MOGADISHU: Somalia’s Al-Shabab militia on Monday publicly executed two people accused of spying for the US Central Intelligence Agency and the country’s government. They were killed by a firing squad in the capital Mogadishu after Al-Shabab judge Sheikh Abdullahi Al-Haq pronounced a guilty verdict on them.

“Hassan Moalim Abdullahi is found guilty of spying for the USA. He has been proven beyond any shadow of doubt that he belongs to the CIA,” Al-Haq said of the first individual. “The defendant said that he served the CIA and admitted his misdeeds,” he said without elaborating.

The second defendant was accused of guiding government troops to insurgent targets. A third individual was flogged 29 times for counterfeiting dollars.

Government troops, meanwhile, routed the insurgents from a strategic central town after launching a predawn assault. Baladwayne resident Mohamed Salah told Reuters he saw two bodies on the streets and that at least four people, including a police officer, had been wounded in the fighting.

“Government troops are everywhere in town this morning. The other forces fled after brief clashes,” Salah said. “It is calm now, but we are afraid that there will be more fighting.”

Baladwayne has changed hands violently several times in recent months. It was a stronghold of Al-Shabab. The town lies near the Ethiopian border.

In Mogadishu, two separate battles between Al-Shabab and African Union (AU) peacekeepers killed at least 13 civilians. In the first battle, heavily armed insurgents attacked a Burundian contingent of the AU based at a former military academy in southwestern Mogadishu. Witnesses said eight civilians were killed.

Later, residents reported missiles pounding Mogadishu’s main market and said they were fired from an AU base nearby. Witnesses say they saw at least five civilians killed.

However, AU peacekeeping force spokesman Barigye Bahoku said AU soldiers did not target the market in the city’s south and instead were firing to protect a cargo ship docking at the port, which was being attacked by insurgents.

The African Union force, which is meant to protect key government installations such as air and sea ports, has become the main target of militias keen to overthrow the fragile UN-backed government. A loose alliance of groups opposed to the government control most of Mogadishu and other areas of southern Somalia.