MOGADISHU, Somalia - The head of UN food agency operations in the violence-wracked Somali capital was taken away Wednesday by 50 to 60 heavily armed government security officers who had stormed the UN compound in Mogadishu, the agency said.
The World Food Program suspended aid distribution in Mogadishu in response.
The detention followed some of the heaviest fighting in weeks in the capital. Overnight, at least eight civilians and one policeman died during an hours-long battle between Islamic insurgents and policemen, said residents and the police on Wednesday.
WFP's Idris Osman was being held in a cell at the National Security Service headquarters and the World Food Program has not received any explanation for the action, the agency said in a statement, adding his detention violated international law.
"In the light of Mr. Osman's detention and in view of WFP's duty to safeguard its staff, WFP is forced immediately to suspend these distributions and the loading of WFP food from our warehouses in the Somali capital," the statement said.
No shots were fired when the officers stormed the UN compound in Mogadishu, the statement said.
The civilians killed during the late Tuesday battle died when mortars crashed into their houses during fighting that began when 100 insurgents blasted a police station in the south of Mogadishu with heavy machine-guns and rocket propelled grenades, residents said.
"Buildings shuddered and weapons exchanged by the two sides illuminated the sky of the city," said Abdullahi Hussein Mohamud, who also said some mortars landed near his home that is some distance away from where the battle took place.
Abdi Haji Nur, a businessman, said that the insurgents captured the station, forcing about 30 policemen based there to flee.
Gen. Yusuf Osman Hussein, director of police operations in Mogadishu, denied the insurgents seized the station, saying policemen repelled "elements of peace-haters" and lost one of their colleagues during the fighting.
Mogadishu has been plagued by fighting since government troops and their Ethiopian allies chased out the Council of Islamic Courts in December. For six months, the Islamic group controlled much of southern Somalia and remnants have vowed to fight an Iraq-style insurgency. Thousands of civilians have been killed in the fighting this year so far.
Somalia has not had a functioning governments since 1991, when rival warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other.
