Pope Benedict has deplored the killing of an Italian nun in Somalia

Reuters:

Gunmen shot dead sister Leonella Sgorbati and her bodyguard on Sunday outside a children's hospital in north Mogadishu where she had worked since 2002.

The attack drew immediate speculation of links to Muslim anger over Pope Benedict's recent remarks on Islam but no direct link has been proven.

The Pope expressed his condolences over the death in a telegram to the head of the nun's religious order.

"While repeating a firm deploration for any form of violence, His Holiness hopes that the blood that has been shed by such a faithful disciple of the Gospel can sow hope for the building of real fraternity among people with reciprocal respect of everyone's religious convictions," the telegram said.

Sgorbati, born in 1940 in Piacenza in northern Italy, was from the Missionaries of the Consolation order based in Nepi, near Rome.

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