[dehai-news] (AFP): Mogadishu mortar attack kills seven


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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed Oct 01 2008 - 19:32:16 EDT


Mogadishu mortar attack kills seven
Wed Oct 1, 1:43 PM ET

MOGADISHU (AFP) - At least seven civilians were killed Wednesday in a mortar fire exchange that erupted when an African Union (AU) plane landed at Mogadishu airport in defiance of a "ban" by an Islamist militia, witnesses said.

A mortar attack by suspected Islamist insurgents trying to enforce a blockade on Mogadishu airport triggered retaliatory fire, residents told AFP.

It was not immediately clear whether the counter-attack was carried out by African Union peacekeeping forces stationed at the airport or by Somali government forces.

"Five people were killed in Holwadag neighbourhood after a mortar shell landed in a busy street, in front of a cafe where many people were seated," eyewitness Ahmed Abdullahi said.

Another witness said that some of the victims were among a group of people waiting at a nearby bus stop.

One of the mortar shells also struck a house in the Dharkinley neighbourhood, killing a mother and two-year-old child, local resident Abduqadir Biyomalow said.

A total of at least 12 people were wounded in the violence.

The latest bloodshed in the Somali capital further marred an already sombre Eid al-Fitr, the feast marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Somalia's Al-Shebab movement last month warned that all flights to and from the airport should cease, arguing that the airport was an instrument of Ethiopia's military occupation of Somalia.

Mortar battles have since claimed dozens of lives.

The airport is used for both commercial and military flights but is also the main base for the Ugandan contingent of the AU peacekeepers, who were reinforced by Burundians earlier this year.


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