Al Shabaab militants kill another Somali lawmaker

 A Somali lawmaker was killed in Mogadishu on Monday when al Shabaab gunmen sprayed his car with bullets, the latest in a string of assassinations of politicians in the war-torn country.

"Abdulahi Qayad Barre was shot dead, men killed him as he left his house to go to parliament," his colleague Abdukarim Hajji said.

No fewer than five MPs were killed last year, but Barre was the first to be assassinated in 2015.

"We killed (the) lawmaker. We shall continue killing them one by one," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's military spokesman, told Reuters.

Police officer Captain Osman Ali said lawmaker Abdullahi Qayad Bare was killed when militants fired on his car and then sped off.

"He died and the militants escaped in their car," he said.

Al-Shabaab was pushed out of the capital by African peacekeeping forces in 2011 but have waged a series of gun and grenade attacks to try to overthrow the government and impose its strict version of sharia law.

Despite the joint military campaign, al Shabaab has continued to strike with often devastating effect using hit-and-run bomb and gun attacks in the capital Mogadishu and in towns.