Mogadishu mortar blasts kill mother and 3 children

By Aweys YusufMOGADISHU, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Mortar bombs firedby suspected Islamist insurgents killed a woman andher three children in Mogadishu in the first suchattacks in the Somali capital in weeks, witnesses said on Monday.

Several other people were injured in theshelling late on Sunday, which locals saidappeared aimed at the presidential palaceVilla Somalia but struck residential areas instead."One of the three mortars landed on a homenear ours and killed a mother and her threechildren," said resident Fardawasa Abdi, addingthat the children were aged 6 to 8.

"Their father was seriously wounded in the throatand their grandmother was also wounded in the face."Residents said the mortars hit two otherhomes, causing more injuries.Somalia's interim government is struggling toimpose its authority on the Horn of Africa nationsince it routed an Islamist movement from the capitalover the New Year.

Remnants of the sharia courts group are now blamedfor an Iraq-style insurgency of assassinations androadside bombs targeting security forces and theirEthiopian military allies."Insurgents fired the mortars to terrorise civilians.They did not mean to target the presidential palacebut wanted to terrorise people," said Ali Nur, a seniorpolice officer.He said the bombs were fired from a neighbourhoodmore than 2 kilometres (1.25 miles) from the hilltop palace.OPPOSITION CONFERENCE BLAMES ETHIOPIAIn Eritrea, Somali opposition figures said"liberation forces" had inflicted casualties onEthiopian soldiers, who had been deliberately targeting civilians.

"Attacks have been carried out by liberation forces in several areas of Mogadishu with heavy casualties by (Ethiopian) occupiers and their stooges," Zakariya Mahamud Abdi, a spokesman for the opposition conference, told reporters."(The Ethiopians) have indiscriminately shelled areas ... and there have been civilian casualties."The talks in Eritrea -- Ethiopia's neighbour and arch-enemy -- have brought together 400 delegates, including senior Islamists of the courts' movement, to dissident ex-legislators, a former deputy prime minister and Somali diaspora members.The meeting, which is expected to end on Wednesday, aims to form an umbrella group of Somali opposition.Somalia, with a population of about 9 million, has had no central government since it slid into civil war after the ousting of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

(Additional reporting by Jack Kimball in Asmara)
Source: Reuters