Four UN staff held after Somali aid compound attack

Militiamen have ambushed a convoy carrying nine international aid workers and attacked the Doctors Without Borders compound in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

The militiamen reportedly had a dispute with the French aid group's guards. Witnesses said at least eight Somalis were killed.

As many as 30 people, mostly militiamen, were wounded, according to hospital sources. None of the foreign aid workers, including three Britons, one American, one Belgian and one French citizen, were injured.

The Nobel-prize winning, Paris-based aid group is best known by its French acronym, MSF.

Interior Minister Dahir Dayah said the compound was looted and that government troops sent to intervene were still engaged in a fierce battle with militiamen tonight.

Five of the aid workers, two French and one Spanish MSF worker and two UN Children's Fund employees, were safe in a house in northern Mogadishu, MSF and UN spokeswomen said.

The other four other UN staff - which included two security officers, another UNICEF worker and a World Health Organisation employee - were split into two groups and were in separate locations controlled by faction leader Musa Sude Yalahow, Green said.

Kevin Farrell, acting UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, responded: "It is outrageous that a team trying to do humanitarian work was attacked," said "We need to be able to work in a safe environment. Conflicts like this only derail our efforts to help the Somali people in any meaningful way."

Some 20 Somalis working for the aid group also were in the compound at the time, MSF said.