MOGADISHU, August 24, 2007 - Gunmen shot dead a Somali radio reporter on Friday, colleagues said, the third journalist killed in two weeks.

Abdulkadir Mahad Moallim Kaskey, of local Radio Banadir, died when attackers opened fire on a minibus in southwestern Gedo province, the local journalists' union said.

Another passenger was hurt in the early morning attack. The identity of the attackers was not known.

"This is a really agonising act, and we strongly condemn this roughshod killing of Abdulkadir Mahad Moallim," said Omar Faruk Osman, head of the National Union of Somali Journalists.

The Horn of Africa nation of 9 million people is racked by an Islamist-led insurgency against the Somali government and its Ethiopian military backers.

With foreign media largely staying out of Somalia due to the security risks, local reporters take extreme risks to report the conflict for both Somali media and foreign news agencies.

Kaskey's death followed the killing in Mogadishu on Aug. 11 of two prominent journalists from the HornAfrik media house. One was gunned down on his way to work, the other died in a remote-controlled blast returning from the funeral.

Friday's killing brought to seven the number of Somali journalists murdered this year, the union said.

"The killing of a colleague is a sore and insensate act, but the exceptionally painful thing is when you cannot get justice," said Osman.

"We urge the international community to demand and carry out international investigation of the killing of journalists as... fatal attacks on journalists and violations of press freedom are soaring day after day."

International press watchdog groups have called on Somalia's interim government to step up both protection for journalists and efforts to find the killers of the seven.

Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, who has survived half a dozen assassination attempts, told Reuters this month he was deeply concerned about rising violence against the press.

"We want journalists to be able to do their work freely, and we are doing all we can to help them do that," he said. (Additional reporting by Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi)

Source: Reuters