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Foreigners abducted in Mogadishu | |
(about 2 hours later) | |
Two Europeans, believed to be French, have been kidnapped from a hotel in Somalia's capital Mogadishu. | |
About 10 gunmen disguised as government security forces snatched the men from a hotel in the south of the city. | About 10 gunmen disguised as government security forces snatched the men from a hotel in the south of the city. |
It is not clear who the men are. Some reports say they are journalists and other accounts claim they are security consultants. | |
Islamist rebels are battling troops from the UN-backed interim government for control of Mogadishu. | |
The abductions took place at the Sahafi Hotel in a part of the Somali capital controlled by pro-government forces. | |
Rebels repelled | Rebels repelled |
Gunmen wearing Somali police uniforms turned up at the guest house, seized the two men and took them in a vehicle towards a part of the city run by insurgents, said witnesses. | |
"Two foreigners have been kidnapped this morning by a large group of gunmen," Somali police spokesman Mohamed Ali told the AFP news agency. | "Two foreigners have been kidnapped this morning by a large group of gunmen," Somali police spokesman Mohamed Ali told the AFP news agency. |
Hotel workers told the BBC Somali service that the two men had checked in to the hotel as French journalists. | |
The Sahafi Hotel has often accommodated foreign journalists and Somali government ministers. | The Sahafi Hotel has often accommodated foreign journalists and Somali government ministers. |
But a government official later told Reuters the Frenchmen had posed as journalists for their own protection. | |
"They were security consultants who arrived in Somalia to train state house security guards, not journalists," the official said. | |
The kidnappings come two days after government troops forced Islamist militants from positions around the presidential palace. | The kidnappings come two days after government troops forced Islamist militants from positions around the presidential palace. |
Some of the 4,300 African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu helped push back the insurgents. | |
The radical rebel group al-Shabab and its allies have been trying to topple the fragile interim government, led by moderate Islamist President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. |