By Abdi Sheikh
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Gunmen from Somalia's al Shabaab group looted a U.N. compound on Monday after the militants with links to al Qaeda said they would shut down three U.N. agencies operating in the Horn of Africa nation.
Al Shabaab said in a statement that UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), UNDSS (United Nations Department of Safety and Security) and UNPOS (United Nations Political Office for Somalia) were considered enemies of Islam and Muslims.
"Dozens of well-armed al Shabaab militia have surrounded the U.N. compound in Baidoa," said a U.N. officer in the town that used to house parliament before it was seized by the rebels.
"They have taken away three U.N. cars from the compound but have not harmed several U.N. foreign staff," said the officer, who declined to be named for security reasons.
There was no immediate comment from U.N. officials based in Kenya's capital.
Al Shabaab controls much of southern Somalia and parts of the capital Mogadishu. The group is fighting government troops and African Union peacekeepers to impose its own harsh version of sharia law throughout Somalia.
Although the government led by President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed has voted to implement sharia law in Somalia, al Shabaab says it does not recognise the administration that was formed under a U.N.-hosted peace process in neighbouring Djibouti this year.
Neighbours and Western nations fear that if al Shabaab succeeds in toppling the government, Somalia will serve as a safe haven for hardline militants to train and potentially destabilise the region.
There is also increasing international concern at an influx of hundreds of jihadists into Somalia -- from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Gulf region, and some western nations including the United States and Britain.
Al Shabaab's department of political affairs and regional administrations said the three U.N. agencies had been found to be working against the benefits of the Somali Muslim population and against the establishment of an Islamic state.
"We were ordered to get out of the compound and they immediately started looting the property of all U.N. agencies," a guard at the compound in Baidoa told Reuters. "The looting is going on and the compound still remains in their control."
Al Shabaab said other non-governmental organisations and foreign agencies operating in Somalia should contact the administration in their area and they would be informed of the conditions and restrictions on their work.
(Additional reporting by Mohamed Ahmed in Baidoa and Ibrahim Mohamed in Mogadishu; editing by David Clarke and Richard Balmforth)
