By Sahal Abdulle
Sunday, March 18, 2007
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MOGADISHU, March 18 (Reuters) - Several mortar rounds crashed down in areas of Mogadishu on Sunday in the latest violence to shake Somalia's coastal capital, residents said. The interim government says the coming fortnight will be crucial in proving it can tame one of the world's most dangerous cities in time to hold a peace meeting of clan leaders, elders and former warlords there next month.
A government source, who asked not to be named, said insurgents fired at least six mortar rounds that landed in a northeastern neighbourhood of the city, near the Indian Ocean.
"A few of them hit near the headquarters of the police transport unit," the government source said by telephone.
"One soldier suffered minor wounds, and three civilians were injured. We do not know yet how seriously they were hurt."
Near-daily guerrilla attacks have been blamed on hardline remnants of an Islamist movement defeated two months ago.
U.N. aid agencies working in Somalia say more than 40,000 people fled Mogadishu in February alone.
African peacekeepers from Uganda have also been ambushed, along with Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies.
Last Monday, parliament voted overwhelmingly to move to Mogadishu from its temporary base in southcentral Baidoa town.
But a day later, mortar rounds slammed into the capital's presidential compound, just hours after President Abdullahi Yusuf returned to the city.
His prime minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, met diplomats in neighbouring Kenya on Wednesday to appeal for more than $30 million to host the reconciliation meeting on April 16.
He said the next two weeks would be "a test", on whether the government could prove it could host the gathering in Mogadishu.
Source: Reuters, Mar 18, 2007