MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) – Insurgents struck the Somali capital’s seaport and former intelligence quarters on Sunday, killing two people and injuring at least 16 who were caught in fighting that drew in Ethiopian and government troops, witnesses said.
Mortar attacks were launched against four separate areas in the capital, where attacks against the transitional government are growing more sophisticated and deadly.
One person was killed and at least three people were wounded when a mortar round hit a restaurant near the seaport where locals were having lunch, employees and diners at the restaurant said.
“They were shouting and crying,” said Ali Madey Abdalla, who was at the restaurant. “They were in shock.”
Ten of the injured were taken to Mogadishu’s Keysaney hospital as was one of the dead, Dr. Mohamed Mo’lin said. All were civilians, medics said.
Six people hit by shrapnel were taken to the Medina hospital in the capital, said Amina Mahamed, a nurse there.
The attack came as 18 members of a U.N. delegation arrived in the government stronghold of Baidoa, 155 miles to the southwest of Mogadishu.
The group held talks with Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi about the possibility of sending U.N. peacekeepers, who would replace an African Union peacekeeping mission when its mandate ends in six months, the country’s foreign minister Ismail Hurre told the Associated Press.
Last year, Somalia’s transitional government and Ethiopian troops routed a radical Islamic movement, but insurgents thought to be linked to the group continue to stage attacks.
Meanwhile, a Somali police chief leading a crackdown on insurgents was killed by his bodyguard, witnesses said Sunday.
Col. Abdi Abdulle was appointed earlier this year as police chief of Kismayo, one of the Islamic movement’s last strongholds before its fighters were defeated.
Abdulle died of his wounds after being shot in the leg Saturday night, resident Abdullahi Ahmed Kulmiye said by telephone. The bodyguard, who has not yet been identified, fled with several armed gunmen in a waiting Toyota pickup, Kulmiye said.
Somalia has been mired in anarchy since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another.
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Associated Press writers Salad Duhul and Mohamed Sheik Nor in Mogadishu contributed to this report.
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