- Title: SOMALIA: Mortars rock Mogadishu palace before peace meeting, dozens injured
- Date: 13th July 2007
- Summary: VARIOUS OF THE PRESIDENT AND HAWIYE CLAN ELDERS SHAKING HANDS AND SITTING TOGETHER
- Embargoed: 28th July 2007 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Somalia
- Country: Somalia
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA8X9Z4QWKP2TZQ4VHCEUXO91HL
- Story Text: Several dozen injured as insurgents fire mortars at Villa Somalia in Mogadishu. President Abdullahi Yusuf repeats amnesty offer to Islamic militiamen.
Suspected Islamist rebels fired mortar bombs at Somalia's presidential palace in Mogadishu on Wednesday (July 11), ratcheting up tension ahead of a major peace meeting at the weekend.
A security source at the sprawling hilltop compound said six shells hit just hours after European Union envoys left the capital, having praised preparations for a reconciliation conference of more than 1,000 delegates scheduled for Sunday (July 15).
On Thursday, Somali president met leaders of the city's dominant Hawiye clan whose militia are blamed along with the Islamists for the guerrilla attacks. The president repeated his offer of amnesty for Islamist fighters to hand themselves in.
"I want to repeat again that the amnesty given to the Islamist fighters still stands and the government respects this amnesty, and I am the person who signed that amnesty order," said president Abdullahi Yusuf.
Roadside bombs blamed on hardline Islamists have become an almost daily threat for Somali government troops, their Ethiopian military allies and Ugandan peacekeepers.
But the mortar attack was the first on President Abdullahi Yusuf's Villa Somalia compound for weeks. It was not immediately clear if he was there at the time.
The violence came shortly after Yusuf's interim government said it would push ahead with a twice-postponed peace conference seen as key to establishing peace in the Horn of Africa nation.
Some 1,355 clan elders, ex-warlords and politicians from across the country have been invited to attend.
At Mogadishu's main Madina hospital, officials gave details of wounded civilians received and treated at the hospital.
"Until this morning we received 24 wounded civilians, seven of them were seriously injured. These days we expect at least forty casualties daily," said Hassan Osman Isse, the hospital manager.
The government has been struggling to stamp its authority on Mogadishu since ousting the Islamists with the help of Ethiopia's military in a brief war over the New Year.
An Islamist-led insurgency has rumbled on since then, triggering two bouts of heavy fighting with Ethiopian troops that killed at least 1,300 people and uprooted 400,000 more.
EU diplomats visited Mogadishu on Wednesday and met senior government officials, the conference organizers and Hawiye clan leaders.
Some Hawiye elders had refused to attend the conference when it was initially scheduled for mid-April, and then mid-June. Both times it was postponed due to security fears.
Some opponents of Yusuf's administration have based themselves in Ethiopia's arch-foe Eritrea, where they released a statement on Wednesday saying they would hold a separate meeting there on Sept. 1 to discuss how to "liberate" their country. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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