Region | Somalia
Presidential guard shoots minister's brother dead
A presidential guard has shot and killed the brother of a Somali government minister, apparently for making a phone call near a volatile junction in the capital, police and relatives said.
- AP
- Published: 00:30 February 29, 2008
Mogadishu: A presidential guard has shot and killed the brother of a Somali government minister, apparently for making a phone call near a volatile junction in the capital, police and relatives said.
Abukar Abdisalan, the elder brother of Somalia's information minister, was shot in the back of the head as he was returning from a morning run on Wednesday, according to his brother who was with him.
The shooting occurred near an intersection that has been the site of fighting before, and where a presidential convoy was scheduled to pass by shortly.
Abdisalan "was talking on his mobile phone and that apparently raised the suspicions of troops at a nearby road intersection, who were waiting for the leaders' convoy to pass," said the brother, Aden Abdisalan.
He said a first shot missed Abukar Abdisalan, who then started running, at which point the soldier shot him in the back of the head.
Police confirmed the killing and planned to file charges against the soldier.
"It is intolerable that soldiers recklessly shoot civilians," national police chief Abdi Hassan Awale said.
Also on Wednesday, masked gunmen killed a government official in the northern part of the capital. A day earlier, four gunmen killed a former security chief, residents said.
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