July 24 (Reuters) - Somalia's new hardline opposition leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys has vowed to protect aid workers in the Horn of Africa nation where insecurity has stopped many groups from working.

Here are details of recent attacks on humanitarian staff:

* Unknown gunmen kill three elders on July 18 who were helping local aid workers distribute food in a camp for displaced civilians outside Mogadishu.

* Gunmen kill Mohamed Kheire, local deputy head of a German charity, Bread for the World, on July 11 at Elasha, south of Mogadishu. Separately, gunmen in the capital also kill another local man working for ASAL, a partner group of the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP).

* Gunmen kill Osman Ali Ahmed, local country director for the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), as he leaves a Mogadishu mosque on July 6.

* Gunmen kidnap five local employees from Water For Life, an Italian charity, on June 30 after stopping their cars west of the capital. They are still being held.

* A Kenyan university lecturer was kidnapped in May in Mogadishu by three abductors who demanded $100,000 ransom. He was later released and it was not known if a ransom was paid.

* A Briton and a Kenyan working on a U.N.-funded project were seized by gunmen in April and taken to Jilib town, 280 km (175 miles) south of Mogadishu. They are still being held.

* Ten men with pistols briefly seized two Libyan diplomats in January while they shopped in a busy market in Mogadishu.

* A Spanish doctor and an Argentine nurse were taken by gunmen in the northern port city of Bosasso at the end of December 2007. The two -- who worked for the Spanish branch of Medecins sans Frontieres -- were later released.

* A French journalist was taken in the northern Puntland region in December 2007 and held for eight days before being released. Kidnappers demanded a $80,000 ransom. It was not known if this was paid.

* A Briton and a Kenyan, working for the CARE International relief agency, were released in May 2007 after being kidnapped in northern Somalia. The two aid workers were used as a bargaining chip in a dispute with authorities.

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