Late Aweys’s militia kill Somali journalist.

Late Aweys’s militia kill Somali journalist.

Mogadishu 08 June 2009

Armed gunmen with the late Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys on Sunday assassinated a Somali media official in the capital Mogadishu where security forces are battling Islamist rebels, colleagues and a witness said.

Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe, the director of Shabelle radio was shot in the head and chest in Bakara market, one of the most volatile areas in Mogadishu where the dead Aweys’s militia commit killings’ acts against civilians and journalists.

“We have been called by phone a man asking us why we have aired Sheikh Aweys’s death then they shot dead our director," said a journalist at the radio who requested anonymity.

Witnesses said the official was slain in front of business companies shortly after the radio received the phone call from Aweys’s militia.

"The assailants escaped from the scene after the killing and injured other journalist with the director" he said.

Sources privy with the opposition groups said they have decided to kill all reporters in Mogadishu gradually to stop news against them.

Attacks against journalists have rise since Aweys arrived in Mogadishu with military ammunitions from Eritrea.

So far this year, more than 4 journalists in Somalia ranking the country the second deadliest worldwide after Iraq for journalists, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Somalia has lacked an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre touched off a power struggle that has defied numerous peace bids.