By Nour Geidi
MOGADISHU
A former Somali MP was killed and a sitting lawmaker injured on Thursday after militants fired at their vehicle in capital Mogadishu, a local official has said.
Abdel-Qader Mohamed, chief of Mogadishu's Hamar Weyne district, said militants had opened fire on a vehicle carrying MP Mayow Mustaf and former MP Liban Barbarshi, killing the latter.
The drive-by shooting also killed Barbarshi's bodyguard, Mohamed asserted.
He went on to say that security forces had pursued the assailants, who fled the scene following the attack.
The militant Al-Shabaab group has since claimed responsibility for the shooting.
Thursday's attack comes one day after Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed five people – along with the bomber – outside Mogadishu airport on Wednesday.
Somalia has remained in the grip of on-again, off-again violence since the outbreak of civil war in 1991.
Earlier this year, the country had appeared to inch closer to stability after government troops and African Union forces drove the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab from most of its strongholds.
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