Lawmaker assassinated in Somalia: Police

Gunmen in Somalia shot dead a veteran politician in the capital Mogadishu on Saturday, police said, in the latest attack against legislators carried out by Al-Shabaab insurgents.

Osman Elmi Boqore, who was regarded as the oldest legislator in the national parliament and was believed to have been in his eighties, was killed near his home in the capital's northern Sanca neighbourhood. The gunmen escaped in a car after the shooting.

"Gunmen assassinated the legislator near Sanca intersection in the Karan district," said Ibrahim Mohamed, a police officer.

"The security forces are trying to track down the cowardly killers." A statement published on a pro-Shabaab website claimed responsiblity for the killing, quoting a Shabaab commander who boasted of the "well-organised attack carried by members of the mujahedeen fighters".

The Al-Qaeda affiliated group have carried out a string of attacks against the government, and President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo condemned the latest killing.

"The security forces must carry out a swift investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice," Farmajo said in a statement.

Shabaab fighters fled their fixed positions they once held in Mogadishu in 2011, and have since lost many of their strongholds. But they retain control of large rural swathes of the country, and continue to wage a guerrilla war against the authorities.