Somali Gunmen Kill Head Of Media House

`Two masked men armed with pistols turned into an alley and shot our friend Said dead`, a local reporter, who was with him, told Reuters.

Gunmen shot dead the head of private media house HornAfrik in Mogadishu on Wednesday in the latest assassination of a journalist in Somalia.

Said Tahlil Ahmed was killed in Mogadishu's Bakara market, which is often a battleground for government soldiers and Islamist insurgents, witnesses and colleagues said.

"Two masked men armed with pistols turned into an alley and shot our friend Said dead," a local reporter, who was with him, told Reuters, asking not to be named.

"They shot him several times in the heart and he died on the spot. We ran away for our lives as they kept shooting."

A shopkeeper at the market confirmed the shooting.

"His body now lies on the spot. The men disappeared soon after," Bakara trader Farah Hassan said.

Ahmed is the ninth local journalist killed since the start of 2007, according to Ali Yasin Gedi, vice-chairman of local rights group, Elman Peace and Human Rights.

The shattered Horn of Africa nation is one of the most dangerous places on earth for journalists, often facing pressure from both sides and taking great risks to cover stories.

At least 17,000 civilians have been killed and 29,000 others injured over the past two years in Somalia's conflict.