Somali gunmen kidnap senior UN aid worker

Mogadishu: Somali gunmen have kidnapped the local head of the UN refugee agency in Mogadishu, witnesses said on Sunday.

Ten gunmen raided the home of Hassan Mohamed Ali, a Somali who runs the agency's operations in the Mogadishu area, in Elasha, south of the capital on Saturday.

"They broke into his house after exchanging gunfire with his guards and took him with them," resident Farah Abdi told Reuters.

"We see stains of blood in front of his house but we do not know who the kidnappers were and where he is held now," Abdi said.

Gunmen are still holding hostage four foreign aid workers—two Italians, a Kenyan, a Briton—and another three Somalis abducted in April and May.