Gunmen in Somalia's capital have shot and killed the director of a radio station that was shut down by militant group al-Shabab in 2010.

Witnesses tell VOA that Abukar Hassan Kadaf was attacked by two men with pistols late Tuesday as he returned to his Mogadishu home. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The National Union of Somali Journalists quickly condemned the killing and noted that Kadaf was the second radio director killed in Mogadishu in the past month. On January 28, gunmen shot and killed Hasan Osman Abdi, director of Radio Shabelle.

Kadaf ran Somaliweyn Radio, a privately-owned station in Mogadishu that al-Shabab fighters shut down and looted in early 2010, when the militants controlled most of the capital.

The Somali journalists' union reports that Kadaf had been trying to put the station back on the air.

Al-Shabab was driven out of Mogadishu by government and African Union forces last year but has continued to carry out attacks in the city.

The group, which recently formalized an alliance with al-Qaida, has tried to overthrow the government and turn Somalia into a strict Islamic state.