MOGADISHU, Tuesday (Reuters) - Kidnappers in the Somali capital Mogadishu have freed two Kenyan men they abducted on Sunday in the city's Bakara market, colleagues said on Tuesday.
The pair were grabbed along with two Somalis by 10 masked gunmen in the market, which is controlled by al Shabaab rebels who Washington accuses of being linked to al Qaeda. The Somalis were later released, then the Kenyans were freed late on Monday.
"They are safe ... We gave them a vacation," said Abdukar Ali, manager of the Hamar Adde printing centre where all four men had worked. He said the two Kenyans had flown to Nairobi.
Another colleague at the printing centre confirmed the pair had been released and had left the Horn of Africa nation.
Kidnappings -- often targeting foreigners and aid workers -- are common in Somalia. The two Somalis who were released earlier have declined to comment on their brief abduction.
President Sheik Sharif Ahmed, a moderate Islamist elected earlier this year at UN-backed talks in the 15th attempt to establish a central Somali government, is struggling to deal with insurgent groups who control large parts of the country.
Mogadishu
Two Kenyans who were seized by armed gunmen at a market in Somalia's capital Mogadishu were released today, according to reports.

The Kenyans, workers of the printing agency Hamar Adde, had been taken from the Bakara market, the biggest trading centre in the Somali capital, at gunpoint on Sunday. Eyewitnesses said that two Somalis in the company of the Kenyans were kidnapped as well, but later were soon released.

"They are safe ... We gave them a vacation," said the manager of the Hamar Adde printing company, Abdukar Ali, where the kidnapped men are employed. He added that the two Kenyans have flown back to Nairobi.

Kidnappings, frequently targeting aid workers and foreigners, are commonplace in Somalia. The country has not had a stable government since 1991, when warlords ousted former leader Siad Barre in a coup.