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UN official killed in Somalia

Other News Materials 7 July 2008 00:58 (UTC +04:00)

Gunmen opened fire on people leaving a mosque in Somalia's capital on Sunday night, killing one of the country's senior U.N. officials and wounding his son and another man, a witness and a family member said.

Attacks on officials, including those working for the U.N. or aid agencies, are common in Somalia, where Islamic insurgents have vowed to fight an Iraq-style insurgency against the country's weak and corrupt U.N.-supported government, the AP reported.

Osman Ali Ahmed, the head of the U.N. Development Program for Somalia, was covered in blood and unconscious as he was rushed to a hospital after Sunday's shooting, said Hassan Ali, a witness and a neighbor of Ahmed's. Ali said in an interview that it was not clear how badly Ahmed's son and the other man were hurt.

Ahmed's wife, Masteho Abubakr Yusus, later told The Associated Press that her husband died at the African Union hospital after being shot in the head.

The shooting occurred a day after an explosion killed a Somali official, his wife and four others in Mogadishu.

On June 21, Hassan Mohamed Ali, head of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees organization in Mogadishu, was abducted from his home on the outskirts of the capital.

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