News editor Abshir Ali Gabre and reporter Ahmed Hassan Mahad of Radio Jowhar, a private station in Jowhar, 55 miles (90 kilometers) north of the capital, Mogadishu, were gunned down when a provincial governor's motorcade was ambushed by gunmen from a rival sub-clan.
Gabre and Mahad were riding in the first vehicle of the official convoy, a white pickup truck carrying officials and armed security guards, according to Station Director Saeed Ali Afrah. Gabre sustained gunshot wounds to his neck and left hand, while Mahad was shot in the head and chest, he said. The official was unharmed, but at least six people were killed and several injured in the ensuing gun battle, according to the independent station Radio Shabelle.
Gabre, 35 and the father of one, was also the head of the Middle Shabelle branch of the National Union of Somali Journalists and a stringer for the private Somali Broadcasting Corp., according to Afrah.
Mahad, 24, had been reporting for Radio Jowhar since its inception in October 2002. He was survived by a wife and three children.