Six aid workers - five foreigners and a Somali - kidnapped by gunmen after fighting in Mogadishu were freed early today but four others were still held, the United Nations said.
Those freed included three foreign employees of the Medecins sans Frontieres charity, two expatriate staff of the UN Children's Fund and a Somali UNICEF staffer.
The six were in a group of aid workers abducted yesterday in a raid on the MSF compound in Mogadishu by gunmen loyal to warlord Muse Sudi Yalahow.
The assault sparked some of the worst fighting in months in the Somali capital as Muse Sudi's men fought government forces.
An official of Muse Sudi's group said the foreigners were kidnapped to show the war-ravaged capital, scene of the defeat of a US-backed peace bid in 1993, was still a dangerous place.
The six have been released into the charge of the transitional government, Ms Sonya Laurence Green, spokeswoman for the Nairobi-based UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator's Office for Somalia, said.