Mogadishu, 11 August - As the reconciliation conference sponsored by the Ethiopian-backed government is dragging on in Mogadishu, with the participation of some one thousand tribal elders from various parts of Somalia, the security situation in the 10 million-country at the crucial Horn of Africa is worsening by the day.

From southern Somalia to Mogadishu, armed rebel groups are launching sporadic attacks against the Ethiopian-backed forces of the interim government and agains Ethiopian army posts. While a popular radio station that had been reporting about the plight of the hundreds of thousand of internally displaced and the estimated one hundred thousand dead since the invasion.

The radio station Horn-Afric was raided and ordered off the air, this morning, three journalists were killed. One of them, Mahad Ahmed Elmi, the owner of a popular radio station was gunned down while on his way to work. One of his colleagues, Ali Iman Sharmarke, was killed by a landmine as he drove home from Elmi's furneral. The assassination of the two colleagues followed the killing of a third journalist, late last night.

All three journalists had been warned by representatives of the Ethiopian government not to continue reporting about the humanitarian catastrophe that has been mounting in Somalia since the Ethiopian invasion. Three other journalists have been detained, adding to the six that have been detained in July and the six media workers killed in Somalia so far this year, according to Reporters without Borders.

The Somali Journalists' Union expressed its "outrage" over the killings which it said were deliberate.

Al Jazeera correspondent in Somalia, Mohammed Adow, reported that "moments before Ali Imam was killed, he had told journalists about the movements silencing the Somali media who were talking about the poor conditions for Somali people today."

Reporters without Borders revealed that "pressure has been mounting on Somali journalists. They have been victimised for not reporting on the issues of interest to certain groups. This just shows how precarious Somalia has become for journalists."

Source: Arab Monitor News Agency