Somali lawmaker with Minneapolis ties killed in Mogadishu

Saado Ali Warsame
In this photo taken Monday, Dec. 2, 2013, Saado Ali Warsame, a Somali member of parliament is seen during a parliament session to endorse Somali prime minister in Mogadishu, Somalia.
Farah Abdi Warsameh/AP

The Somali terror group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the Wednesday killing in Mogadishu of a Somali lawmaker with Minneapolis ties.

Before she became a member of Somalia's parliament, Saado Ali Warsame was a popular Somali folk singer.

On The Daily Circuit, BBC reporter Rage Hassan said Warsame was a female pioneer in many ways, including how she presented herself on stage.

"She won the admiration of Somalis inside Somalia and outside Somalia -- not only because she was a musician, but because especially in 1980s, she was in the few Somali singers who came out on stage without covering her head," he said.

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Warsame lived in the Twin Cities and returned to Mogadishu in 2012 to join the Somali parliament.

Police say gunmen ambushed her car, killing Warsame and her driver. She was the fourth Somali legislator killed this year.

Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed tweeted about her death:

http://youtu.be/VQG3z45wdi8