Somalia's Al-Shabaab militant group has claimed responsibility for Wednesday's assassination of female lawmaker Sada Ali in Mogadishu.
Al-Shabaab spokesman Abdulaziz Abu Musab told the BBC's Somalia service that Ali, a singer by profession, had been targeted because of her political positions, not because of her vocation.
Eyewitnesses said unidentified gunmen had opened fire on Ali's vehicle in central Mogadishu, killing her immediately.
The attackers, for their part, managed to flee the scene unscathed.
Ali's murder is the second such incident to occur during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Earlier this month, another Somali MP was killed in a drive-by shooting in Mogadishu in an attack also claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab.
Somalia, located in the Horn of Africa, has remained in the grip of political violence since the outbreak of civil war in 1991.
The troubled country recently appeared to inch closer to stability with the installation of a new government and the intervention of Kenya-led African Union troops tasked with bringing Al-Shabaab to heel.
By Nour Geidi
englishnews@aa.com.tr
