Foreign cameraman shot dead in Somalia

MOGADISHU, June 23: A gunman shot dead a Swedish cameraman covering a pro-Islamist rally today in Mogadishu, just weeks after its new rulers said they had pacified one of the world's most lawless cities after 15 years of anarchy.

He was filming a protest led by the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) which took the city from US-backed warlords on June 5 and seized a strategic swathe of the Horn of Africa country.

Witnesses said he was filming at the front of a crowd of thousands. ''A gun went off, he went down, that was it,'' Guardian correspondent Xan Rice, who was present, told Reuters.

''There was mass confusion. We were shunted to the side, and the rally was called off.'' After the lone shot, the crowd fled from the body, leaving sandals strewn on the sand.

Britain's Channel 4 News named the cameraman as Martin Adler, who it said had done ''outstanding journalism and filmmaking'' for it in the past. But the broadcaster said Adler had not been on assignment for it in Somalia.

Abdirahim Isse, an aide to the courts' leadership, told Reuters an unarmed woman who was close to the victim and ran away had been arrested for questioning. But he said the investigation was still underway.

A Reuters photo taken seconds after the shooting showed Adler bent over clutching his stomach.

''The man was in a vehicle and came out to take video shots of some angry youths who were burning US and Ethiopian flags ... it was a single shot and within a second he was down,'' another witness said.

Since the courts took over, several Western journalists have gone into the city -- previously considered too dangerous to visit -- at the invitation of the ICU, who say they are bringing peace and order to a country in desperate need of calm.

'A BIG SETBACK'

Today's shooting -- at least the 10th killing of a foreign journalist in Somalia since 1991 and the first since BBC producer Kate Peyton was shot in May 2005 -- demonstrates just how hard it will be to tame a city awash with weapons. The ICU confirmed the shooting, which took place in an open area known as Tarbuunka, often used for public gatherings.

''It is a big setback, but we will find out who did this. It could be the warlords trying to make a comeback. It could be just a crazy person. I don't think it was from within the courts,'' Nairobi-based ICU spokesman Abdurahman Ali Osman said.

Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari urged the ICU to catch the culprit: ''We don't know who is behind it... Mogadishu is not a very secure place and it's very hard to know who might have been behind this act.'' Since warlords ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, the city has become a battleground where local and foreign interests clash and motives for murders are often murky.

But in an interview with the Al Jazeera television network, Salad Ali Jelle, deputy information minister for Somalia's weak interim government, blamed extremists that security experts and diplomats agree are operating there.

''This act stems from terrorism because the Islamic Courts went out in demonstrations and some terrorists took advantage of this to assassinate this journalist,'' Jelle told the network.

The shooting came hours after the Islamists and the government signed a deal in Khartoum on Thursday aimed at preventing confrontation and starting negotiations.

The courts have effectively flanked the government's base in the south-central town of Baidoa, raising fears that Ethiopia may intervene to protect the administration and spark new conflict. The government is too weak to move to Mogadishu.

REUTERS