Mortar bomb hits Mogadishu residential area
Source: Reuters
By Guled Mohamed MOGADISHU, Feb 15 (Reuters) - A mortar bomb struck a residential area of eastern Mogadishu on Thursday, wounding a young girl in the latest in a string of almost daily attacks in the chaotic seaside capital, residents said. It was not clear who carried out the attack. The strikes have sent residents fleeing the capital of the Horn of Africa nation where the interim government is struggling to impose security after defeating Islamist rivals in a December war. "I was driving along the Tarbuunka Square when suddenly a mortar bomb landed on the other side of the road in a residential area. People started fleeing. I made a quick U-turn and drove away," said resident Abdi Abdille. Tarbuunka Square is in the east of the city and a site where the Islamists regularly held rallies during their six-month rule of Mogadishu. That ended in late December after Ethiopian forces backed government troops in a lightning assault that pushed the Islamists out of their strongholds across southern Somalia. A second resident, Mukhtar Abdi, said the bomb landed near a house and slightly wounded a girl. Residents said the strike may have been in retaliation for another mortar bomb which reportedly hit north of the seaport. "I understand an explosion was heard on the north of the seaport," port security chief Abdirahman Mohamed said. It was not immediately clear if anyone was injured in that attack and government officials could not immediately be reached for comment. The port has been targeted before because of the presence of interim government troops and their Ethiopian military backers, who are often attacked by unknown assailants that may include Islamist remnants who have vowed to fight them.
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