Senior Ugandan public prosecutor shot and killed in Kampala suburb

KAMPALA (Reuters) - A senior Ugandan prosecutor was shot dead late on Tuesday evening, in what police said could be a targeted assassination connected to her prosecution of suspects in twin bombings in the capital Kampala claimed by the Somali Islamist rebel group al Shabaab.

Joan Kagezi has been a chief prosecutor in the trial of around a dozen people accused of organising two attacks that killed at least 79 people in crowds watching screenings of the football World Cup final in July 2010. Al Shabaab claimed the bombings as retaliation for Uganda's despatch of troops to bolster the Somali government.

Kagezi was shot at around 8 p.m. (6:00 p.m. BST) in Kiwatule, a suburb about 13 km (8 miles) from the centre of Kampala.

Police spokesman Patrick Onyango said she appeared to have been attacked as she was driving home by two men who had trailed her on a motorcycle, and that she had died shortly after arriving at hospital.

Onyango said the police were looking into the possibility that the killing was connected to her work as a prosecutor.

Last week, the U.S. embassy warned of "possible terrorist threats" on locations frequented by Westerners. Although it did not name the group behind the threats, Ugandan security said it was al Shabaab.

"Al Shaabab could have realised that they could not carry out a big terror attack because of our security, and decided to target an individual," Onyango said.

(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; editing by Edith Honan and Kevin Liffey)