A Swedish journalist was shot and killed Friday in the Somali capital while attending a mass demonstration organised by the Islamic courts union that seized the city this month after fierce battles.
Witnesses said an unknown gunman shot the journalist, identified in Stockholm as Martin Adler, 47, in the chest at close range at a rally in south Mogadishu where some 4,000 Islamists were demonstrating in support of the courts, underscoring security concerns.
The killing came less than 24 hours after Somalia's largely powerless transitional government and the increasingly powerful courts signed a mutual recognition and truce agreement in talks in Sudan. Swedish foreign ministry spokeswoman Nina Ersman said, "We have identified the man as Martin Adler, a photographer and Swedish citizen."
Adler worked as a freelance reporter, photographer and cameraman for, among others, Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet and Britain's Channel Four television, his employers said.
"Martin Adler was one of the most experienced war correspondents in Europe and the world," Anders Gerdin, editor-in-chief of Aftonbladet, said in a statement published in the paper's website. Aftonbladet, which the journalist was on assignment for, also confirms his age as 47.
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