Somali security forces have shot dead a minister for public works in his car in the capital Mogadishu after mistaking him for an Islamist militant, officials say.
Mogadishu mayoral spokesman Abdifatah Omar Halane said the minister, Abbas Abdullahi Sheikh Siraji, who was also a lawmaker, was killed on Wednesday "by mistake - they opened fire on his car accidentally. May God rest his soul".
Police Major Nur Hussein told Reuters that security forces on patrol encountered a car blocking the street and, believing it was being driven by militants, opened fire.
Al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabab militants often carry out attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere in their campaign to topple Somalia's government and drive out African Union peacekeeping troops out of the Horn of Africa country.
