(Adds peacekeepers wounded, paragraphs 7-8)

By Abdi Sheikh

MOGADISHU, Oct 23 (Reuters) - The Somali government freed a senior U.N. food aid official on Tuesday, nearly a week after dozens of intelligence officers stormed the World Food Programme's compound in Mogadishu and seized him.

"We welcome the release of Idris Osman, and are pleased that he will be reunited with his family," U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director Josette Sheeran said in a statement from the organisation's headquarters in Rome.

Osman is the local head of the WFP in Somalia.

His detention, in an investigation of unspecified charges, had brought international pressure on the government and led the WFP to halt aid distribution in the Horn of Africa nation, many of whose 9 million inhabitants are in dire need of food aid.

More than 60 security officers stormed the WFP premises in the coastal capital last Wednesday to arrest Osman. The United Nations condemned the raid as a violation of its immunity.

Rampant insecurity has forced many aid agencies to quit Somalia, leaving the United Nations and a few other groups to run limited operations staffed almost entirely by Somalis.

In the latest violence, several Ugandan peacekeepers were wounded near Mogadishu port late on Tuesday by mortar bombs apparently fired at them by unknown attackers.

There was no comment from the Somali government on Osman's release, but witnesses said he had returned to the WFP compound, where he was quickly joined by his wife and elated relatives.

WFP spokesman Peter Smerdon said no bail had been requested, and the government and WFP would launch a joint investigation.

Separately, a rights group lambasted the Somali government for "systematic harassment" of reporters, closure of media outlets and failure to investigate the killing of journalists.

Islamist-led rebels attack the government and its Ethiopian military allies almost daily, and Somalia has become one of the world's most dangerous places for journalists.

Few foreign correspondents travel to the impoverished country, leaving local reporters to face the risks. Eight have died this year, most gunned down by unidentified assassins.

INSURGENTS ATTACK

In the latest attack, Radio Shabelle chairman Bashir Nur Gedi was killed by unidentified gunmen on Friday night.

"The violent attacks on Somalia's journalists threaten their courageous reporting on the crisis in Mogadishu," Peter Takirambudde, Africa director of U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), said in a statement.

"The transitional Somali government must condemn and investigate these attacks as well as cease its own harassment."

Somali officials insist they are doing their best to protect journalists, as well as all civilians, but say they are up against a vicious group with links to al Qaeda.

Civilians have been the main victims of Somalia's insurgency, which has included suicide strikes, assassinations and Iraq-style roadside bombings.

Witnesses said three children and two policemen died in one blast targeting a government convoy late on Monday, while a third policeman was killed by another device early on Tuesday.

A fourth policeman died later when insurgents threw a hand grenade at a group of officers, Mogadishu residents said.

"After the blast the police opened fire and killed one civilian. I saw the body," said a local journalist who declined to be named and said he was taking shelter in a nearby shop.

A senior security official, requesting anonymity, said the insurgents were stepping up their attacks. "But as long as the Ethiopians are here, the rebels' military power is nothing," he told Reuters by telephone. (Additional reporting by Aweys Yusuf in Mogadishu and Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi)

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