A Somalia government intelligence commander, Bakaal Kooke, was on Thursday night killed in Southern Somalia after a bomb planted by Al-Shabaab militant group exploded.
Kooke was a Somalia top intelligence official who had been at the forefront of the war on Al-Shabaab militants.
Keydmedia reports that Kooke who till his death was intelligence chief for Gedo Region, died in a roadside blast that targeted his car on the outskirts of Luuq town in Gedo province located in Somalia-Kenya.
Kooke was returning from Luuq and en route to Dolow within the region at the time of the attack. His driver and other NISA agents were also wounded in the overnight landmine explosion.
The Al-Shabaab militant group in a statement posted on its affiliated media outlets has claimed responsibility for Kooke’s killing.
It was reported that the Gedo region has been the flashpoint of the political crisis in the country during Farmajo's leadership.