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Somali Gunmen Kidnap U.N. Health Workers
WASHINGTON, March 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Seven U.N. staff members were taken hostage Tuesday in the Somali capital of Mogadishu in fighting between rival gunmen that erupted following an attack on a compound of the Medecins Sans Frontieres charity, U.N. officials said.
"They were taken hostage, but what is happening now is up in the air. ...For the most part we believe they are safe," a U.N. source said.
Earlier, witnesses said that at least seven people were killed in fighting between government forces and those of Somali warlord Muse Sudi Yalahow, who controls much of southwestern Mogadishu and opposes the new national transitional government of President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan.
Though some reports say that at least one Western national is among the dead, the identity of others is not yet known.
According to hospital sources, as many as 30 other people, mostly militiamen, have been wounded.
The U.N. said six foreign U.N. workers and one local hired aide are missing after being abducted from the office.
U.N. spokesman Farah Haq could not release the names of those apparently kidnapped, but they are understood to include one American, three Britons, an Algerian and a Somali national.
Fighting broke out when one gunman of Mogadishu's armed factions opened fire on a rival group that had been hired to protect a compound belonging to the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF - Doctors Without Borders).
Haq said that staffers from the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) had been participating in a MSF child vaccination program.
U.N. officials said there has been fighting in the area where the vaccination teams were working but normally they obtain assurances from the warring parties that there will be no fighting while the teams are working in the area.
According to Samantha Bolton, a spokesman for MSF in neighboring Kenya, three aid workers from MSF were also kidnapped. They are apparently unharmed and being held in the capital.
According to Abdulkadir Mohamed Mohamud, an aide to Yalahow, none of the hostages have been injured. He claimed that they were staying in three different locations under the faction's control.
"All I want to show the international community is that Mogadishu is not a safe place," said Mohamed, adding that, "We'll release them soon."
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