Witnesses: 5 Pakistani preachers killed in Somalia

By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, Associated Press Writer

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Masked gunmen killed five Pakistani preachers Wednesday outside a mosque in Somalia following morning prayers, witnesses said.

Six gunmen with assault rifles and pistols stormed Tawfiq Mosque in Galkayo and forced six Pakistani preachers and a Somali man outside, said Ismail Mohamud Hassan, who was in the mosque at the time. The gunmen then opened fire, he said.

"Five of them died on the spot while two others were injured — one Pakistani and a Somali," Hassan told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Galkayo, 470 miles (750 kilometers) northwest of the capital, Mogadishu.

Abdullahi Ali Nur, another witness, said the foreigners told worshipers Tuesday that they were Pakistani.

It was not clear who was behind Wednesday's killing in this overwhelmingly Muslim country. Somali militiamen rarely target religious preachers, known as Tabliq.

Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, then turned on each other. A moderate Islamist was elected president in January in hopes that he could unite the country's feuding factions, but the violence has continued unabated.

The country's lawlessness has spread security fears around region and raised concerns that al-Qaida is trying to gain a foothold in the Horn of Africa. The anarchy also has allowed piracy to flourish off the country's coast.

The government and African Union peacekeepers hold only a few blocks of Mogadishu, while Islamic insurgents control much of the country and operate openly in the capital in their quest to impose a strict form of Islam in Somalia.

The U.S. considers one of the most powerful Islamist groups, al-Shabab, of being a terrorist group with links to al-Qaida, but al-Shabab denies that.

Officials at the Pakistan High Commission in neighboring Kenya, which is also responsible for tracking Somali affairs, were unavailable for comment.