Somali Minister for Defense Kidnapped in Uganda

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Gunmen kidnapped Somalia's state minister for defense Tuesday during a trip to the Ugandan capital, a Somali government spokesman said.

Minister Yusuf Mohamed Siad was abducted Tuesday as he walked out of a mosque in Kampala, said Somali government spokesman Sheik Abdirisaq Qeylow.

"We are investigating," Qeylow told The Associated Press. "All we know so far is that he was taken away."

Calls to authorities in Uganda were not immediately returned.

Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, then turned on each other. The al-Shabab insurgent group, which has foreign fighters in its ranks, operates openly in the capital and seeks to overthrow the government and impose a strict form of Islam in Somalia.