Mortar
attacks and heavy gunfire have been
reported in Mogadishu, the Somali
capital.Jame
Ahmed, Al Jazeera's correspondent,
quoted witnesses as saying that
violent clashes have broken out
around the presidential palace.
Details of casualties, if any, were
not immediately available.
A
government source said: "Eight
mortar shells were fired at Villa
Somalia [presidential palace], but
only five hit. The other three went
into nearby houses."
Ethiopian
troops have often been the target of
attacks [AFP]
One
local resident said: "We heard
shelling, but the government and
Ethiopian troops forced us inside
when we came out to see."
A Somali
source said that Abdullahi Yusuf,
the president, was inside the
building at the time of the attack.
Gun
battle
After
the mortar attacks, fighters with
machineguns ran towards the building
where they fought presidential
guards around the hilltop compound
for about 20 minutes before
retreating, witnesses said.
Yusuf
recently took up residence in the
palace which had been used by
Mohamed Siad Barre, Somalia's former
dictator, prior to his ouster in
1991.
Fighters
from the Islamic Courts Union, which
was only recently driven southwards
from Mogadishu by Somali government
and Ethiopian troops, are thought
to be behind the attack.
One
former Islamic court's soldier said:
"Many Islamists have started
infiltrating Mogadishu again."
He
said that an attack on the Villa
Somalia had been planned.
A
Somali government bodyguard reached
by telephone said the attack was
launched from a school just a few
blocks north of the white-washed
presidential compound.
Ethiopian
troops, who backed the Somali
interim government forces as they
claimed Mogadishu, have often been
the target of attacks.
Ethiopia
is keen to withdraw its troops
quickly.
Meles
Zenawi, the Ethiopian prime
minister, has said his forces would
start leaving "in the next few
days".
AU
initiative
In
Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital,
the African Union's key Peace and
Security Council approved sending a
peacekeeping mission to Somalia for
six months, after which it hopes to
give way to a UN mission.
The
council authorised the depoyment of
a peackeeping force of more than
7,600, agreeing to send nine battalions
of 850 troops each with immediate
effect, a statement released after
the meeting said.
The
initial deployment will be one-third
that number.
The
African Mission to Somalia, or
Amisom, is to "facilitate
humanitarian operations in
Somalia and consolidate peace and
stability in Somalia", the
statement said.
Diplomats say international
peacekeepers will be the only way to
stabilise Somalia following the
departure of Ethiopian troops.
