Islamic extremists have shot dead a Christian woman and her son and seriously wounded her husband in Somalia, sources told Morning Star News.
The family was asleep at home near the capital Mogadishu a gang of armed men from the Islamist group Al Shabaab opened fire, shouting 'Allahu Akbar' (God is great), and, 'We cannot allow the defiling of our religion with a foreign, Western religion.'
The survivor, aged 38, had converted secretly from Islam to Christianity.
Suleiman Abdiwahab, head of the family, told Morning Star News: 'The gunmen fired several shots, then destroyed the door with a big metallic object and then were able enter into the house. They randomly shot at everyone.'
His wife Faduma Osman, aged 35, and their son Ahmed, aged 11, were killed.
Their two daughters and another son fled through a back door and the bodies of the dead and injured were found by neighbours.
Al Shabaab rebels have been fighting for 10 years, repeatedly targeting Mogadishu and surround farmland.
Peacekeepers from the African Union Mission in Somalia have had some success however in countering the rebels.
Somalia is second to North Korea on the Open Doors' 2017 World Watch List of countries ranked according to which is worst for Christian persecution.
