Police report: Militants attack doctors' convoy killing 6

MOGADISHU (AP):

Suspected armed Islamic militants yesterday ambushed a convoy carrying doctors near the Somali capital, killing six people, three of them Syrian doctors who were in the country giving medical assistance, officials said yesterday.

Captain Mohamed Hussein, a senior Somali police commander, said the convoy came under attack in a semi-forested area outside Mogadishu, while on the way to give medical assistance to patients at a hospital.

Hussein blames al-Shabab insurgents for the attack. Somalia's weak government is attempting to rebuild the war-ravaged nation after African Union troops helped the Somali army eject the al-Qaeda-linked militants from all the major cities, including the capital Mogadishu.

Dr Abdi Ibrahim Jiya, a well-known orthopedic surgeon in Somalia, said he trained a Somali doctor killed in the attack. Jiya said others killed were the three Syrian doctors and two Somali aides, who were all heading to Fiqi hospital in Elasha Biyaha, a settlement near Mogadishu. A Syrian doctor was also wounded in the attack, he said.