MOGADISHU, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- A local Somali journalist was shot dead on Friday by unknown gunmen in the capital city of Mogadishu as he left his home for work, witnesses and media reports said.
Abdi Hared Osman was rushed to hospital after he was shot several times by armed assailants as he walked to a bus stop in the Mogadishu district of Wadajir.
"Reporter Abdi Hareed was shot by a group of men armed with pistols as he headed to work," the local Shabelle Radio in Mogadishu reported. Hareed worked as an editor and playwright at the radio station.
The reporter died as he was being prepared for operation by doctors at the Medina hospital in Mogadishu which he was taken to following the attack, health officials said.
This was the first killing of a journalist since the beginning of the year. The year 2012 was the deadliest for Somali journalists. In the year, 18 Somali jounalists lost their lives in violence.
A journalist is currently under arrest by Somali government police after he was accused of interviewing a woman who claimed to have been raped by government soldiers, a charge vehemently denied by officials.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the latest killing of the journalist. None of the previous attacks were claimed. The Somali government accuses the Islamist Al Shabaab group of targeting the journalists.
International and local media watchdogs consider the war torn horn of Africa country as one of the worst places for media to operate.
