26 Aug 2009
One of two French security advisors held hostage by al-Shabaab fighters has managed to escape his captors in Mogadishu, Somali officials say.

The French national escaped on Tuesday night accompanied by a white man believed to be a journalist who was also held as hostage by al-Shabaab in one of Mogadishu's environs, a Press TV correspondent reported.

The Frenchman and his colleague, who were on an official mission to Somalia for training Somali intelligent forces there, were kidnapped from their hotel room in Mogadishu on July 14 by heavily armed fighters loyal to al-Shabaab group.

"We understand he killed three al-Shabaab guys who were guarding him. I cannot understand how this good story happened but now he is in the hands of the government," Abdiqadir Odweyne, a senior police commander, told Reuters.

Earlier this month, Somali gunmen freed six foreigners -- two Kenyans, two French, a Bulgarian and a Belgian -- abducted in November.

press tv