The killing of an Italian Catholic nun in Mogadishu today may well be linked to anger among Muslims about Pope Benedict's recent remarks on Islam, a senior source among Somalia's Islamists said.
"There is a very high possibility the people who killed her were angered by the Catholic Pope's recent comments against Islam," the source said.
The Italian nun and her bodyguard were shot dead in the Somali capital today in the latest attack on aid workers in Somalia.
"After serious injuries, she died in the hospital treatment room. ... She was shot three times in the back," Dr Ali Mohamed Hassan, a physician at children's hospital in north Mogadishu where the nun worked, said.
One suspect has been arrested by Islamist militiamen who control the capital, the witnesses said.
Islamists representing courts practicing strict sharia law seized Mogadishu from US-backed warlords earlier this year.
The Islamists' presence brought some order to the chaotic capital. But Mogadishu is awash in weapons and aid workers have been targets of violence in the past.
Political tensions have also created a sense of insecurity as the Islamists take more territory from a militarily inferior government based in the provincial town of Baidao.