SOMALIA: Mogadishu mortar blasts kill mother and three children

Record ID: 353217

  • Title: SOMALIA: Mogadishu mortar blasts kill mother and three children
  • Date: 10th September 2007
  • Summary: PEOPLE AND NEIGHBOURS LOOKING ON VARIOUS OF MADINA HOSPITAL SHOWING WOUNDED CIVILIANS INCLUDING CHILDREN ADMITTED AFTER FIGHTING (SOUNDBITE) (Somali) SAHRA BASHI, WOUNDED WOMAN, SAYING: "My two children and I were injured while we were sleeping in our house last night. One of the children was injured in the stomach and the other one has got injuries in both legs." MORE OF
  • Embargoed: 25th September 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Somalia
  • Country: Somalia
  • Topics: War / Fighting
  • Reuters ID: LVABA4LRIDMG8Z7NICWQ3GDOJ4CU
  • Story Text: Mortar bombs fired by suspected Islamist insurgents killed a woman and her three children in Mogadishu in the first such attacks in the Somali capital in weeks.
    Mortar bombs fired by suspected Islamist insurgents killed a woman and her three children in Mogadishu late on Sunday (September 9) in the first such attacks in the Somali capital in weeks.
    Several other people were injured in the shelling late on Sunday, which residents said appeared to be aimed at the hilltop presidential palace, but struck residential areas instead.
    "The mortars killed my brother's sons, we don't have anything, we haven't even seen their bodies, we only heard big explosions at night,"
    sobbed Said Faduma Haji outside her brother's house on Monday (September 10).
    The two children were aged 6 and 8 years.
    Their father was said to have been seriously wounded in the throat and their grandmother was also wounded in the face.
    Residents said the mortars hit two other homes, causing more injuries.
    Most of the injured were taken to Madina hospital where they received treatment.
    "My two children and I were injured while we were sleeping in our house last night. One of the children was injured in the stomach and the other one has got injuries in both legs," said Sahra Bashi from the hospital.
    Somalia's interim government is struggling to impose its authority on the Horn of Africa nation since it routed an Islamist movement from the capital over the New Year.
    Remnants of the sharia courts group are now blamed for an Iraq-style insurgency of assassinations and roadside bombs targeting security forces and their Ethiopian military allies.
    A senior police officer, Ali Nur, said insurgents did not mean to target the presidential palace and fired the mortars to terrorise civilians.
    He said the bombs were fired from a neighbourhood more than 2 kilometres (1.25 miles) from the Villa Somalia palace.
    Somalia, with a population of about 9 million, has had no central government since it slid into civil war after the ousting of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
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