In the Somali capital Mogadishu, a group of al Shabaab insurgents have amputated a hand and a leg from four teenage boys. The amputations were carried out as a punishment for theft.

A spokesman for al Shabaab said the sentence was carried out according to Islam’s strict Sharia law. He added that the group would punish anyone else convicted of theft in the same way.

Al Shabaab, which is seen as a proxy for al Qaeda in Somalia, is fighting to remove the government of moderate Islamist President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed. It now controls most of southern Somalia and has carried out executions, floggings and single-limb amputations before, mainly in the southern port of Kismayu.

In areas under al Shabaab control, films and football matches are banned, while men and women are forbidden from traveling together on public transport.

Photo of Mogadishu by ctsnow (flickr)