Somali journalist killed by man in soldier uniform

A Somali journalist looks at the dead body of his colleague Abdisalan Sheikh Hasan in southern Mogadishu, December 18, 2011.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A journalist with a Somali television channel was shot dead in the capital Sunday by a man wearing a government soldier's uniform, witnesses said.

Abdisalan Sheikh Hasan worked for the Horn Cable TV channel, colleagues and locals said.

"A government soldier in uniform with an AK47 ordered us to stop our car and, without further questions, he opened fire direct to my colleague," Zakariye Abdulahi, who also works for the television channel, told Reuters.

"We rushed him to the hospital, but he died in the operating room - I could not identify (the killer), but he was among government troops in the capital."

Government spokespeople could not immediately be reached for comment.

Somalia, without a fully functioning government for 20 years and in the grip of civil war, is ranked the most dangerous country in Africa for journalists by media rights group Reporters Without Borders.

(Reporting by Omar Faruq; Writing by Mohamed Ahmed; Editing by Barry Malone)