Somalia: Spy Chief Visits U.S. for Talks With CIA, FBI and Pentagon Officials

UA-ONU/Stuart Price
A street in Mogadiscio (file photo).
23 May 2023
Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)

Mogadishu — The director of the National Intelligence and Security Agency [NISA] Mahad Salad is in the US on an official working visit, becoming his 1st since taking the powerful office last year.

The spy chief is reported to have been invited to America for talks with FBI and CIA officials in Washington and New York on counterterrorism in Somalia, where hundreds of US special forces are based currently.

Credible sources disclosed that Mahad Salad was also having a meeting with Pentagon officials who are keen to boost cooperation with Somalia in the fight against Al-Shabaab.

Besides the engagement with US Intelligence and military, Mahad Salad is credited for unprecedented reform in NISA and ensuring the security of Mogadishu, the Somali capital.

However, Salad's US visit coincides with an airstrike by AFRICOM against Al-Shabaab in Jilib town on Monday, with the state media reporting that SNA forces were involved in the raid.

Last year, days after the re-election of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as president on May 15, Biden authorized the redeployment of fewer than 500 American troops into Somalia on helping local forces defeat Al-Shabaab.

Despite facing battlefield defeats, Al-Shabaab frequently carries out bombings in Mogadishu and elsewhere as part of its war against the Horn of Africa country's central government.

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