Aid worker slain in Somalia

Militants had intercepted Mohammed -- an aid worker serving in Somalia -- earlier in the morning.  That afternoon they gathered villagers, saying they would prepare a feast for them.

Five masked men emerged carrying guns, wielding Somali swords and dragging the handcuffed prisoner. One pulled back Mohammed's head, exposing his face, and scraped a sword against his short hair as if to sharpen it. Another recited the Koran as he proclaimed that Mohammed was a "murtid," an Arabic term for one who converts from Islam to Christianity.

Mohammed remained calm with an expressionless face, never uttering a word. As the chanting of "Allah Akubar" [God is greater] rose to a crescendo, one of the militiamen twisted his head, allowing the other to slit his neck. When the head was finally severed from the torso, the killers cheered as they displayed it to the petrified crowd.

The militants allowed one of their accomplices to take a video of the slaughter. The video was later circulated secretly and sold in Somalia and in neighboring countries in what many see as a strategy to instill fear among those contemplating conversion from Islam to Christianity.

Killings are forcing other Christians to flee to neighboring Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

-- adapted from Compass Direct News