(CNN) — Suspected insurgents fired mortar rounds at a plane carrying Somalia’s transitional president, but no one — including Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed — was harmed, a presidential spokesman said.
The attack happened while the plane was about to take off from Mogadishu’s airport Sunday around 11 a.m. local time, spokesman Hussien Mohammed Huubsireb said.
“Al-Shaabab has actually tried to harm the president, but thank God nobody was hurt,” Huubsireb said.
Sunday’s mortar attack is the second assassination attempt on Ahmed. The president survived a car bombing in September 2006 outside Somalia’s parliament in Baidoa that killed at least eight others.
Somalia’s Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi has been more frequently targeted by the insurgents seeking to destabilize the government.
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(Reuters) — Insurgents have fired mortars at a plane that was due to take Somalia’s president to Djibouti, but he was unharmed and travelled to a meeting with a UN security council delegation, officials and residents said.
President Abdullahi Yusuf was due to meet the delegation in Djibouti, where his interim government and opposition exiles living in Eritrea are participating in UN-backed peace talks. He was not due to take part in the talks, which started a day late on Sunday (local time).
“The president and delegates have left … the Islamists failed to achieve their goal and the mortars did not damage the plane,” presidential spokesman Hussein Mohamed Mohamud said.
An airport staff member said the mortars were aimed at a plane arriving to take Mr Yusuf to the talks in Djibouti.
“Around five mortars landed in the airport and people ran into the concrete building,” the staff member said.
Militants behind near-daily ambushes and roadside bombs targeting government troops and their Ethiopian allies are the remnants of an Islamist movement that was ousted at the start of last year.
The hardline opposition figures, including Islamist insurgent leaders in Somalia, say mediation efforts will go nowhere until Ethiopian Woyanne troops backing the government leave.
UN officials met the government and Islamist delegations separately, witnesses in Djibouti said.
A UN Security Council team touring troubled spots in Africa this week plan to visit Djibouti and meet the transitional government leaders, including Mr Yusuf.
Analysts say a meaningful peace pact looks impossible given opposition divisions and the presence of Ethiopian Woyanne troops in the Horn of Africa nation, which has been without central governance since the 1991 toppling of a dictator.
FORUM | 4 Comments
he will be finished in the third trying. those somalians who have british nationality and they are killing their ppl in somalia should be paid the highest price in their life .
[Reply]
June 1st, 2008 at 1:00 PM
It’s called Somali or Somalis. Not “Somalians.”
The Somali forces will take out that traitor puppet and other when the right time comes by. But the targets is the Ethiopian army and of course Gabre. You will publish news Elas, about Gabre is dead and dragged trough Moqdishu streets.
[Reply]
June 1st, 2008 at 4:08 PM
If one should be killed and dragged their corpse in the steets, it should be the dead brain powerhungered tribalist aka puppet president, not because of the Ethiopian soldiers presence in Somalia, but per se, he is the main obstacle to peace in Somalia.
BTW, somali and somalian mean exactly the same thing.
[Reply]
June 1st, 2008 at 6:11 PM
And is Gabre not a obstacle to peace in Somalia? Everysingle Weyane soldier on the Ancient land of Somalis is main problem and that’s included Ogaden. General Garbage will be dragged if he stays in Somalia. it’s a matter of time. And of course if he don’t run away.
No the correct term is Somali.
“Nationality:
noun: Somali(s)
adjective: Somali “
[Reply]
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:55 AM