(Adds aid agency, details)

By Ibrahim Mohamed

MOGADISHU, May 21 (Reuters) - Somali gunmen stormed an aid group's office and kidnapped two Italian workers and a Somali colleague on Wednesday in the latest abduction of foreigners in the anarchic Horn of Africa nation.

Arriving in three vehicles, the assailants blindfolded guards then took the aid workers in Awdigle town, 65 km (40 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu, residents said.

The Rome-based group, Cooperazione Italiana Nord Sud (CINS), said it had been able to speak with hostages Iolanda Occhipinti, Giuliano Paganini and Abderahman Yusuf Arale.

"CINS has made an initial contact with the three volunteers who said they were well and had not suffered any violence," the aid group said on its Web site http://cins.pettigna.com.

Kidnapping is a lucrative business in Somalia, which has been in civil conflict since 1991, and abductors generally treat captives well in anticipation of a hefty ransom.

The aid group did not say whether a ransom had been demanded, and it was not known who had taken the three.

CINS works on agricultural projects in the area and is funded by Italy, the European Union and the United Nations.

A senior police official in the area told Reuters authorities would try to negotiate a release.

"Our first priority is to try to resolve the abduction through dialogue. If it fails, then we will decide what action to take," deputy police chief Nurie Ali Farah said from Marka town, the provincial headquarters.

Somali gunmen are still holding two aid workers, a Briton and a Kenyan, seized in April. And earlier this week, gunmen kidnapped a Kenyan university lecturer in the capital Mogadishu, demanding $100,000 for his return.

Until those recent abductions, kidnapping of foreigners had been relatively rare in southern Somalia, which has been too dangerous for most organisations to send expatriates.

Most seizures for ransom in recent years have occurred in the more stable and semi-autonomous northern regions.

MORE VIOLENCE

In the latest violence across Somalia, at least 12 people were killed since late on Tuesday, residents and police said.

Ethiopian troops and their Somali government allies are battling an insurgency led by members of the Islamic Courts movement that controlled much of the south until they were ousted in a short war in 2007.

In one incident, Somali insurgents attacked a police checkpoint a few kilometres (miles) north of the capital killing three Somali soldiers and two civilians, residents said.

A roadside bomb also detonated in the capital killing two Ethiopian troops and three government soldiers.

In Baidoa, the seat of Somalia's parliament, a Somali intelligence officer was gunned down. A hand grenade thrown at Somali police killed one civilian and injured three others. (Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed in Nairobi and Rome bureau; Writing by Jack Kimball; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne) (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/)

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