KISMAYU, Somalia - Somali Islamists have stoned to death a woman accused of adultery in the first such public killing by the militants for about two years, witnesses said.
The 23-year-old woman was placed in a hole up to her neck for the execution late on Monday in front of hundreds of people in a square of the southern port of Kismayu, which the Islamist insurgents captured in August.
Stones were hurled at her head, and she was brought out of the hole three times to see if she had died.
When a relative and others surged forward, guards opened fire, killing a child, the witnesses said.
"A woman in green veil and black mask was brought in a car as we waited to watch the merciless act of stoning," one local resident, Abdullahi Aden, told Reuters.
"We were told she submitted herself to be punished, yet we could see her screaming as she was forcefully bound, legs and hands. A relative of hers ran towards her, but the Islamists opened fire and killed a child." in uk.reuters.com (Oct 28, 2008 10:49am GMT)
