2 U.N. Troops Killed, 11 Hurt in Somalia

Gunmen wounded 11 U.N. peacekeepers Wednesday in an unusually bold daylight mortar attack on their capital compound, a U.N. spokesman said.

Two Italian peacekeepers, meanwhile, were shot and killed while jogging in Mogadishu’s port area.

Mortar attacks by Somalis also killed a Somali child and wounded 17 other Somalis, U.N. peacekeepers said. And in a separate encounter, helicopter-borne American forces killed two Somali militiamen.

The 11 wounded peacekeepers suffered only minor injuries.

But Maj. David Stockwell, a U.N. spokesman, said the daylight mortar attacks could signal a new phase of the assault on U.N. peacekeepers. He noted that mortars have often been fired at U.N. headquarters, but only at night.