Somali troops battle gunmen in presidential palace attack
Jan 19, 2007 (MOGADISHU) — Government troops battled unidentified gunmen who attacked the Somali president’s palace in central Mogadishu Friday night, spreading panic around the capital. A government spokesman said no one inside the presidential compound was injured in the attack.
The attackers fired three mortars into the presidential compound and then engaged guards in a 30-minute fire fight, residents living nearby said. The attack took place after dark, when it is often too dangerous to move around the city.
The president and prime minister were in Mogadishu, but their exact whereabouts were unclear.
Government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said one shell hit the presidential palace, known as Villa Somalia, but that no one inside was injured or killed. He didn’t have any information about possible casualties outside the compound.
“Those who ambushed the presidential palace escaped, and this is a cowardly act intended to terrorize the public,” Dinari told The Associated Press. “The culprits wanted to show that Mogadishu was not calm.”
The government has invited African peacekeepers to help provide security in Somalia, but they are unlikely to come if fighting continues.
Khadra Dahir Osman, who lives next to the presidential compound, which occupies a hill overlooking Mogadishu, said she fled to her brother’s home, panic-stricken.
The majority of the guards at the palace are troops from Ethiopia, a neighbor often seen as a traditional rival of Somalia. They have been subject to several hit-and-run attacks by unidentified gunmen in recent weeks. Ethiopian forces rarely acknowledge to taking any casualties.
The internationally recognized government – with key military backing from Ethiopia – had managed to drive an Islamic movement that had challenged it for power out of Mogadishu and much of the rest of southern Somalia. But the potential for violence remains great because of clan rivalries, resentment of the government’s Ethiopian backers and a threat of guerrilla war from remnants of the Islamic movement.
Earlier Friday, a man claiming to be a new spokesman for the radical Council of Islamic Courts said the group would continue to fight against Ethiopian troops inside Somalia using guerrilla tactics.
“We will never accept the presence of Ethiopian forces inside the country,” Sheik Mustafa told The AP. “Ethiopia should withdraw its troops from the country.”
Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi arrived in Mogadishu Dec. 29, a day after the Islamic movement’s fighters abandoned the capital. President Abdullahi Yusuf arrived Jan. 8. Since then, their government has struggled to restore order to a capital that has known little but chaos and violence for decades.
(AP)