Three unidentified assailants shot Mahad, 20, at around 5 p.m. near his home in Howlwadag village in
western Beledweyne, the capital of the central Somali region of Hiran,
according to local journalists and news reports.
Mahad, also
known as Mahad Jamal, was the editor of Voice of Hiran, a radio station in
Hiran, before he began working as a local correspondent for Somalia’s largest
news outlet, the Shabelle Media Network.
The journalist had reported on a conflict between Al-Shabaab
and Ahlu Sunnah Waljama, the pro-government Sufi militia, in the Mahas District
of Hiran on the day he was killed, according to Radio
Shabelle. Somali forces had seized Beledweyne from Al-Shabaab’s control in
December 2011, but their control over the town remained fragile, according
to news reports.
Witnesses told journalists there were three gunmen at the
scene, and Shabelle
reported that government forces killed one of them. Some news accounts citing
government officials reported
that the dead gunman was an Al-Shabaab fighter. The Somali government issued a statement condemning the
attack and claimed Al-Shabaab was responsible, but the insurgents did not
publicly claim responsibility.
Mahad is
survived by a wife and their 2-month-old child.