Thursday, January 01, 2009
Hassan Mayow Hassan was caught in crossfire between Islamist insurgents and another armed group in Afgoye, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of the Somali capital, the network said. He had been a correspondent for Shabelle since 2006.
Somalia has been the scene of near-constant, brutal fighting since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre before fighting among themselves. The lawlessness has fueled an epidemic of piracy off the Horn of Africa that an international fleet has struggled to contain.
Neighboring Ethiopia invaded the country in December 2006 to depose an Islamic government and install a U.N.-backed transitional government in Mogadishu.
The Islamists, whom the United States accuses of having ties to the al Qaeda terrorist network, responded with a guerrilla campaign that has crippled efforts to support a U.N.-backed transitional government.
Hassan is the 10th journalist killed in Somalia since 2007, according to the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
SOURCE: CNN, Thursday, January 01, 2009