N.O.R.F Posted February 17, 2008 Somali leader unhurt in mortar attack on residence Sat Feb 16, 2008 5:16 PM GMT By Aweys Yusuf MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf escaped unhurt from a mortar attack on his official residence in the capital on Saturday, hours after returning to Mogadishu from an overseas trip, one of his aides said. "Four mortars were fired at the presidential palace. Three of them landed outside, while one landed inside the compound. No one was hurt," the aide, who declined to be named, told Reuters. He confirmed that Yusuf was in the heavily guarded presidential compound at the time of the shelling, but it was unclear whether the attack was directly targeting the president, whose forces are battling an Islamist insurgency. Yusuf arrived in Mogadishu in the morning after seeking medical treatment abroad. The 73-year-old, who had a liver transplant nearly 14 years ago, left Somalia on January 4, a month after a chest illness sparked a health scare. Presidential spokesman Hussein Mohamud Hubsired said Yusuf's main priority was to "hasten the government's works" and to continue reconciliation efforts to establish lasting peace. A local human rights group said on Saturday that nearly 300 civilians were killed last month in Mogadishu. The chairman of the Elman Peace and Human Rights Organisation, Sudan Ali Ahmed, said 292 civilians were killed and 385 wounded in January alone. He estimated that 2 million Somalis had fled their homes in the capital since Islamist leaders were routed from their strongholds in January 2007, triggering an insurgency by remnants of the movement. Ahmed said his group had 116 staff who worked undercover to collate numbers of casualties. "Sometimes we happen to witness the incidents ourselves and we generally coordinate with local hospitals and the media," Ahmed told Reuters in a phone interview. Insurgents have carried out bombings and grenade attacks, drawing retaliatory gunfire from government troops and their Ethiopian allies. Ahmed accused the international community of paying no attention to abuses in the Horn of Africa country, which spiralled into chaos when warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. "We can call what is happening in Somalia genocide. The international community ignores the human rights breaches in the country," he told Reuters by telephone. "The world should focus on Somalia more because the population is more vulnerable than ever before and all war crimes in the country must be tried in an international criminal court." (Additional reporting by Abdi Sheikh; Writing by Katie Nguyen; Editing by Matthew Tostevin) ]http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2008-02-16T1 74253Z_01_L16465472_RTRUKOC_0_UK-SOMALIA-CONFLICT.xml&pageNumber=1&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=News Art-C1-ArticlePage1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Naxar Nugaaleed Posted February 17, 2008 " Saturday, February 16, 2008 MOGADISHU (AFP) - One person was wounded Saturday as mortar bombs fired by insurgents fell near the presidential palace in Mogadishu while President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was inside, a security official said. "The shelling started hours after the president's arrival in the capital but the closest shell landed on a house near the palace area and others passed (by)," the official told AFP. "None of them hit inside the palace." A witness, Farah Hasan, confirmed that a civilian had been wounded when a mortar round hit his house. Islamist insurgents have been waging a deadly guerrilla war, mainly in the capital Mogadishu, against Somali government forces and their allies from the Ethiopian military and an African Union peacekeeping force. In another incident, the head of the capital's Daynile district, Haji Omar Haji Ali, was among five people hurt when his vehicle was blown up by a landmine, Mogadishu's deputy mayor Abdifatah Shaweye told journalists. "A land-mine blew up his car near the district he was in charge of and we arrested two suspects for the incident in which the commissioner and four others were wounded," he said. Source: AFP, Feb 16, 2008" According this, the mortars did not even hit villa Somalia and unlike the one you posted, the sources are known. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jacaylbaro Posted February 17, 2008 What a welcoming party ........ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
