Mogadishu — Four unidentified gunmen have shot dead three government soldiers in K4 area in Mogadishu, witnesses told radio Shabelle on Sunday.

Residents say the gunmen have taken three rifles from the government soldiers after they killed them and escaped from the scene.

Government soldiers have immediately reached the scene and took the bodies of the soldiers. No group has claimed the responsibility of the shooting and there is no word from the government officials in Mogadishu.

Insurgents have been targeting government soldiers since the Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia December 2006.