Young Somali Minister Shot Dead By Government Officials Near Presidential Palace

Somali security forces shot dead a minister for public works in his car in the capital Mogadishu on Wednesday after mistaking him for an Islamist militant.Mogadishu mayoral spokesman Abdifatah Omar Halane said the minister, Abbas Abdullahi Sheikh Siraji, who was also a lawmaker, was killed "by mistake - they opened fire on his car accidentally. May God rest his soul"Abbas Abdullahi Sheikh Siraji, 31, was fatally shot near the Presidential Palace according to VOA.Witnesses said that Siraji was hit by gunshots fired from a vehicle in which Auditor General Nur Jimale Farah was riding.Farah claims his bodyguards suspected a vehicle behind them was transporting a suicide bomber. The vehicles were about 500 meters from the Presidential Palace when the bodyguards opened fire, Farah said.Several of Siraji's bodyguards were wounded in the incident, according to Hassan. Another minister who was in the car with Siraji survived.The auditor general escaped unharmed.Security concerns are high in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, as the al-Shabab armed group continues to target the palace, military facilities and hotels with suicide car bombings and other attacks.Siraji, a former refugee who spent large parts of his life at a camp in Kenya, had been the youngest member of Somalia's new cabinet. He was also a member of the Federal Parliament, elected in Jubaland region during the past parliamentary elections held in the regional states.