20120826
Press TV
One Somali government soldier has been killed and eight others have been wounded in an attack carried out by an armed man in the Hamar Weyne district of the Banaadir region of southeastern Somalia, Press TV reports.

On Friday, a man stabbed a soldier to death near a hotel in Hamar Weyne, then took the slain soldier’s rifle and fired on Somali troops, injuring eight of them.

According to a statement released by an army official identified as Colonel Mahmoud Abdi Faarah, the assailant was finally killed by the security forces.



Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

The weak Western-backed transitional government in Mogadishu has been battling al-Shabab fighters for the past five years, and is propped up by a 10,000-strong African Union force from Uganda, Burundi, and Djibouti.