Mortar bombs hit Somali palace

2007-03-13 20:19

Mogadishu - Somalia's president came under mortar attack in his palace on Tuesday, as gun battles erupted in the violent capital and two government aides were killed in a remote controlled roadside bombing.

President Abdullahi Yusuf was unharmed during the 10-minute attack, said presidential spokesperson Hussein Mohamoud Hussein. But a 12-year-old boy was killed by a mortar that missed the palace, said the boy's father. Three of his children were also injured by shrapnel.

Insurgents launched their most violent attacks since the interim government took control of Mogadishu at the beginning of the year, firing six mortars at the hilltop palace only hours after the president moved to the city.

Ethiopian tanks quickly sealed off the area and several hundred Ethiopian and government troops created a 50m cordon around the palace.

The attacks came a day after the Somali parliament voted to return from the current government base in the southern farming town of Baidoa to the capital, which is home to more than two million people.

Hussein said the attacks were designed to show that the transitional government could not control the city.

"Six mortars have been fired at the presidential palace," said Abdiwahid Haji Mumin, who lives near Villa Somalia. "Two have hit inside the palace and four outside."

Killed in their sleep

Abdullah Ahmed, father of the children who were killed or injured, said they were sleeping when the mortar hit.

"It is sad to see your children to be killed in front of you and you can't do anything," he said. "How can the government say it will restore peace when our children are killed?"

Earlier on Tuesday, a roadside bomb killed two Somali government aides, said an eyewitness, a rare tactic in this restive nation where insurgents are launching increasingly bold attacks.

The blast occurred as the deputy mayor of the country's capital, Mogadishu, travelled to his office in a four car convoy. One vehicle was destroyed, killing the aides instantly.

Deputy mayor Ibrahim Omar Sabriye, who was travelling in another vehicle, escaped with minor injuries, said his bodyguard.

Sabriye received hospital treatment for minor injuries on the leg, said his bodyguard Abdikadir Ahmed. Another bodyguard was seriously injured after shrapnel hit him in the chest.

Somalia's government and troops from neighbouring Ethiopia drove out a radical Islamic movement late last year, but the government is now struggling with a growing insurgency.

- SAPA