WORLD BRIEFING / SOMALIA
Islamic insurgents fired mortar rounds at the presidential palace in Mogadishu, and witnesses said at least 13 people were killed in fighting around the Somali capital.
The insurgents shelled the palace as Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein was meeting with African Union peacekeepers and members of an Islamic group that has signed a power-sharing deal with his government, said Abdi Haji Gobdon, the government spokesman.
Gobdon said no one in the palace was hurt. Government forces fired mortars in retaliation, hitting a crowded market and residential area.
Ali Muse, coordinator of Mogadishu’s ambulance service, said he counted 11 bodies, including those of a woman and two girls.
Northeast of Mogadishu, two civilians were reported killed in a fight that began when militants ambushed Ethiopian military trucks that were pulling out.
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