Two rocket explosions, firefight in Somali capital
Source: Reuters
MOGADISHU, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Unknown assailants fired rocket propelled grenades at a building in Mogadishu housing Ethiopian and Somali troops, the same site where at least one person was killed in an attack over the weekend. A Reuters reporter near the building in the Kilometre Four area of the capital heard the two RPGs explode followed by five minutes of automatic weapons fire, and later, sporadic shots. It was not immediately clear if anyone was hurt in the attack, which a witness from a neighbouring hotel confirmed had struck the building patrolled by Somali troops. "Fighting is going on at Kilometre Four at the same building where Ethiopian and government troops were attacked before. I heard two big bangs. A car is burning outside," the witness, who declined to be named, said. Ethiopian troops are in the Somali capital, helping protect the interim Somali government while it awaits the arrival of an African peacekeeping force to help it tame a country in anarchy since the 1991 overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. The allied forces over a two-week offensive before the New Year thrashed an Islamist movement that for the past six months had taken over most of southern Somalia, including Mogadishu, and threatened the government. Though badly beaten by the superior Ethiopian military, which had tanks and jets, some Islamist fighters have vowed to fight on and carry out an Iraq-style insurgency against the government and its allies. The Ethiopian presence grates on many Somalis, who view their soldiers on Somali soil as another affront by a Christian imperialist power that has for generations been a rival in the Horn of Africa.
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