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Somalia's president unhurt after attack


MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN
Tuesday, March 13, 2007

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MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -  Militants fired mortars at the presidential palace Tuesday, hours after the president moved in, but he was unhurt in the attack that killed a 12-year-old boy and wounded three of his siblings, witnesses and officials told The Associated Press.

Elsewhere in the increasingly violent capital, a remote-controlled roadside bomb killed two government aides and seriously wounded a bodyguard, another witness said. Gunbattles also erupted in the city.

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 President Abdullahi Yusuf moved to the capital from the government's southern stronghold of Baidoa.

Ethiopian tanks quickly sealed off the area and several hundred Ethiopian and government troops created a 160-foot protective cordon around the palace, according to an AP reporter.

Yusuf was unharmed during the 10-minute attack, presidential spokesman Hussein Mohamoud Hussein told the AP.

Source: AP, Mar 13, 2007

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