Deeraw Shot Dead Outside Mosque

BAIDOA, Somalia, July 28, 2006 – An unknown gunman shot dead a minister in Somalia 's interim government as he left a mosque after prayers on Friday in the provincial town of Baidoa , medical personnel and local reporters said.

Amid sketchy first reports, Somali journalist Mohamed Ibrahim told Reuters the slain official was Constitution and Federalism Minister Abdallah Deerow Isaq.

"The minister died when he was shot in the head," said a nurse at the hospital where he was taken.

The killing was bound to ratchet up tensions in the country where Islamist militias threaten the interim government and have taken control of the capital Mogadishu and a swathe of southern Somalia.

The shooting occurred in Baidoa where the interim government is hemmed in because security concerns have made it impossible for lawmakers to move to Mogadishu.

The interim government was formed in 2004 in the 14th attempt to restore central rule to the Horn of Africa nation since the 1991 ousting of Mohamed Siyad Barre ushered in an era of anarchy.

Source: Reuters