Two British and two Kenyan teachers were reportedly killed late Sunday by heavily armed from the al Shabaab group in Somalia during an assault from the al-Qaida loyals on the town of Baladwayne, north of the capital, Mogadishu.

According to local witnesses, three of the victims were women. The fourth was a man of Somali origin and British citizenship who was back in his home town to build a school and educate the locals. The local police has found the bodies of the four teachers inside the school.

The target of the attack was the houses of government officials. The home of the regional governor Yusuf Dabaged and the nearby Hakab Private English School were both burned.

After controlling the entire town for a few hours and freeing prisoners, the militants, suspected members of Union of Islamic Courts according to Aljazeera, withdrew.

The killing of the four passport holders were confirmed by the Somali police. According to Abdi Aden Adow, the police chief, said two victims had British passports and had Somali origins, while the other two were Kenyans.

"The insurgents were able to enter the town easily," he said, "because the government forces retreated to the Somali-Ethiopian border earlier as they received information that the militants were heading the town."

The four teachers were reportedly accidentally killed in the crossfire, senior commander of the al Shabaab, Mukhtar Ali Robow told Reuters by telephone.

"Our motive was not to kill innocent people. Their guards shot at us and we had to fire back," Robow said.

The assault on the Somali town is part of a conflict between Islamist militia and government forces supported by Ethiopian military. Several other towns were raided by the Islamist militia, but, as in Baladwayne, they withdrew.

Staff from the High Commission in Nairobi is currently investigating the case, while the Foreign and Commonwealth Office couldn’t be reached yet to confirm the details of the incident, said a Foreign Office spokesman.