Insurgents target AU peacekeepers in Mogadishu
Source: Reuters
(Adds Islamist comment) By Sahal Abdulle MOGADISHU, March 7 (Reuters) - Gunmen fired rockets near Mogadishu's airport on Wednesday, witnesses said, apparently heeding an Islamist call to fight African Union peacekeepers arriving to help the interim government restore order. Rival Islamist leaders, defeated in a brief offensive by government troops and their Ethiopian allies late last year, have vowed to wage guerrilla war against any foreign forces. Hospital sources said one civilian was killed and at least four others wounded when insurgents launched rockets and grenades at a white AU armoured car and two trucks carrying Ethiopian soldiers, loyal to the government. A senior AU official said no peacekeepers were hurt. "When the attack happened, they had already passed and were not involved," he told Reuters. A witness said the AU troops returned fire after two rocket-propelled grenades were launched at them, hitting a nearby restaurant. The explosions lit up the dusk sky and tracer bullets fired by the Ethiopians flashed overhead. Government troops based nearby also opened fire, witnesses said. "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," said one taxi driver, who gave his name as Yusuf. The attacks took place in a busy part of the city where dozens of minibuses were loading passengers. "When the explosions happened the streets were full and no one was expecting this and we started running," said resident Hawo Halene. Insurgents fired mortar bombs at Mogadishu's airport on Tuesday shortly after several hundred Ugandan troops landed as the vanguard of the proposed 8,000-strong AU force. "The action we started carrying out yesterday will continue," an Islamist source told Reuters. The Ugandans were the first peacekeepers to arrive in Mogadishu since a U.S. and U.N. operation ended in failure in 1995 after relentless street battles with local militias forced them to finally withdraw.
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