Fifth Somali lawmaker gunned down since April

A Somali police officer said Friday that gunmen had shot and killed a Somali lawmaker in the capital, Mogadishu.

Hassan Abdullahi said two gunmen shot and killed Aden Madeer as he left a mosque. Mader, a former minister in the Somali government, is the fifth Somali parliamentarian to be killed this year.

Al-Shabab, an Al-Qaeda-linked group that often carries out attacks against government officials and African Union troops in Somalia, said its fighters had killed Madeer because he brought "Christian enemies" to Somalia, a reference mainly directed at United Nations–backed African Union forces that are opposing the Islamist group and remain the backbone of security in the embattled nation.

Bombings and assassinations have increased in the Somali capital in recent months, prompting fears of a return to daily violence in a city that has enjoyed a relative period of calm since Al-Shabab was pushed out of Mogadishu in 2011.

On July 23, Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for a shooting in Mogadishu that killed a parliamentarian, who was popular for her social justice advocacy and her former career as a folk singer.

Saado Ali Warsame was gunned down together with her driver in the capital’s Hodan district by gunmen who pulled up near her car in another vehicle, said Mohammed Hussein, a police captain. Warsame’s driver was also killed, in the latest of a number of attacks that some say mark Al-Shabab’s resurgence in East Africa.

Legislator Dahir Amin Jesow told Reuters the killings would not deter other members of parliament. "Those MPs whose life span has ended will die, but we shall continue our work," he said.

Al Jazeera and wire services