Insurgents fire rockets in Mogadishu attack
Source: Reuters
MOGADISHU, March 7 (Reuters) - Gunmen fired rockets near Mogadishu's airport on Wednesday, witnesses said, a day after African peacekeepers started arriving to help the interim government restore order in lawless Somalia. A taxi driver at the scene said insurgents attacked two trucks carrying Ethiopian troops loyal to the government, prompting the soldiers to return fire with machine guns. "We saw this huge explosion and dived to the ground. We lay there for three or four minutes, and when the shooting calmed a bit we got our cars and fled the area," he told Reuters. Witnesses said the explosions lit up the dusk sky, before tracer bullets fired by the Ethiopians flashed overhead. Government troops based nearby also opened fire, they said. The attack took place in a busy area of the city where dozens of minibuses were loading passengers travelling home, but it was not immediately clear if there were any casualties. The interim government and its Ethiopian allies, who helped it defeat rival Islamists late last year, have been hit by almost daily guerrilla attacks in the coastal city. Several hundred Ugandan troops arrived in Mogadishu this week as the vanguard of an African Union peacekeeping force. Mortar bombs hit the airport on Tuesday after their arrival. A gunfight later broke out in the city.
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