Critical Somali radio boss killed

Bashir Nor Gedi was killed outside his house

The acting manager of the independent Somali radio station, Shabelle, has been killed in Mogadishu.

Bashir Nor Gedi was attacked on Friday night outside his home by unknown militia armed with pistols, station employees and relatives said.

Last month, Bashir and 18 colleagues were arrested and questioned for hours by government soldiers.

The same month, government troops besieged and fired on the station and ordered Shabelle to stop broadcasting.

After a two-week closure, the station resumed broadcasts on 3 October.

Bashir Nor Gedi, also a well-known businessman, was about few metres outside his home in the Hamar Jadid neighbourhood in the south of the city, when four men shot him three times in the head and the chest.

"We heard three gunshots and someone crying out for a help, when we came out we noticed it was my brother in a pool of blood," said his younger brother, Abdi-nasir Nor Gedi.

Shabelle has previously criticised both the transitional government in Somalia and its Islamist opponents.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has accused the transitional government of intimidating and persecuting Somali reporters.