The Regional Court judge of Sool region, the Honourable Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, was killed Monday afternoon by a suspected IED device fixed on his vehicle in Las Anod, the regional capital.
The deceased judge assumed office eight years ago.
The explosion, it is reported, happened at around 5:30 in the afternoon at a time people were waiting for Maghreb prayers.
Las Anod was a target of unidentified targeted killings before ten years or so. During that time hardly a day dawned or a night drew its curtains without one fatal incident or another rocking the desired tranquillity of its tired residents.
Sine 2010, killings that happened could be directly traced to an identifiable assailant or a cause – most of which linked to revenge issues.
Neither the government of Somaliland nor any other party disclosed suspects to the killing.
The regional police commissioner, colonel Ahmed Abdi, said investigations were underway and finding not decisive yet.
Observers, however, state that the Al Shabaab-Daesh twinned elements, on the one hand, and NISA of Somalia, on the other, cannot be ruled out.
As is the case with most targeted killings in the capital of the federal Somalia government, Mogadishu, no one can any longer distinguish between the two teams as hallmarks and the modus operandi used at almost all the killings, regardless of who did it, have merged into one another.
Somalia, particularly, through its federal state of Puntland, lays claim to a large extent of areas in the Sool. Sanaag and Buuhoodle regions. Looking for some sort of leverage, observers contend, rekindle fear, suspicion and hostilities among residents may play the city into where Somalia want it to be.
With renewed confidence which Somalia’s Turkey-trained SNA is giving Villa Somalia, nothing can be completely ruled out at this stage – or infallibly confirmed, for that matter.
