Local Lawmaker Shot Dead In Northeast Somalia

MOGADISHU, Jan 20 (TF.SF) -- A local lawmaker in the semi- autonomous region of Puntland in northeast Somalia was shot and killed overnight by unknown gunmen, China's Xinhua news agency reported quoting police as saying.The gunmen attacked Mohamed Ahmed Jabril, a lawmaker in the Puntland's local assembly, as he was walking in a main street in Bossaso, the region's commercial capital."We managed to rush him to hospital but he died of his wounds. The police are investigating the incident and will bring those behind it to justice," Ahmed Mire, a police officer in Bossaso, told Xinhua.The assailants reportedly escaped from the scene after the attack, which has not been claimed by any group.Until recently, the region had been relatively stable and had its separate local government since the late 1990s. In the past months, a wave of attacks and bombings hit Puntland, where Islamist rebels were linked to the violence against local security forces and officials.Authorities in the region support the central Somali government which is battling a deadly Islamist insurgency and reduced to a few blocks in the capital Mogadishu under the protection of African Union peacekeeping forces.