Police chief at airport in Somalia's Puntland shot dead

BOSSASO, Somalia- 2 October 2017: A policeman shot dead on Monday the chief of security at an airport in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region and also his bodyguard, police said.

The assailant's motive for killing Colonel Abdisalan Sanyare Owke and his bodyguard at the airport in Galkayo, a city in Puntland, was not immediately clear.

Police detained the assailant and have begun an investigation of the incident, said Mohamed Jama, another police officer working at the airport.

Somalia has been mired in conflict since 1991, but Puntland has been spared most of the violence. It has a dispute with the neighbouring semi-autonomous region of Galmudug that has in the past resulted in fighting.

Al-Shabaab, the militant group that aims to topple Somalia's Western-backed govrnment and impose its strict version of Islam on the Horn of Africa state, has become more active in Puntland after being pushed out of its stronghold further south by African Union peacekeepers and the Somali army, officials say.