SOMALIA: Mortar bombs hit Somali presidential palace

Record ID: 352973

  • Title: SOMALIA: Mortar bombs hit Somali presidential palace
  • Date: 14th March 2007
  • Summary: BODY OF PERSON KILLED DURING MORTAR ATTACK / MAN UNCOVERING FACE OF VICTIM TWO YEAR OLD YOUNG BOY INJURED IN MORTAR ATTACK . WOUND ON CHILD'S LEG
  • Embargoed: 29th March 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Somalia
  • Country: Somalia
  • Topics: War / Fighting
  • Reuters ID: LVA3LNXJ7ZW7GJYPMUIT1KO92KYG
  • Story Text: Mortar rounds crash into Somalia's presidential palace, hours after President Abdullahi Yusuf flies back into the chaotic coastal capital Mogadishu. Several people are feared dead as Somalia's capital Mogasdishu was rocked by a series of attacks on Tuesday (March 13) which hit the presidential palace and surrounding areas.
    In other violent incidents in Mogadishu on Tuesday, a remote controlled bomb -- the first known use of such a device in Somalia's insurgency -- destroyed the car of a city official, although it was unclear if he was in the vehicle at the time.
    Yusuf's interim government voted overwhelmingly on Monday to move to the city, which has been rocked by near-daily insurgent attacks blamed on an Islamist movement defeated two months ago.
    Residents said government troops and their Ethiopian allies based at the hilltop Villa Somalia compound immediately returned fire with artillery. At least three areas in the city were said to have been hit, but details were scarce.
    "All my four children were injured by the mortar and you can see the body of the person killed by the mortar, we are family which has nothing and we do not get any assistance from the government just mortars day and night." said Nuro Abdirahmam, a mother whose four children were injured.
    Police cordoned off the site of the blast and stopped journalists from seeing the wreckage.
    Elsewhere, residents said two civilians were killed and three wounded when Ethiopian troops opened fire after their convoy was ambushed by gunmen.
    Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, who has been out of Mogadishu for about a month, returned to the capital earlier on Tuesday amid tight security.
    His administration is desperate to impose its authority on the whole of the Horn of Africa country after being confined to the south central town of Baidoa since its creation in 2004.
    Its Ethiopians allies are to make way for African Union troops who began arriving in Mogadishu last week. More than 1,000 Ugandans have landed, and been attacked at least twice.
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