Somali insurgents target Mogadishu airport as president flies out

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-13  |     ONLINE EDITION

INSURGENTS fired mortars at the main airport in the Somali capital yesterday as the Somalia president was preparing to fly out, an official said.

Nobody was hurt in the attack, said the president's spokesman, Hussein Mohamed Mohamud.

President Abdullahi Yusuf was at the airport but had not yet boarded the plane when the mortars landed, Mohamud said. He flew to Ethiopia later in the day.

Yusuf escaped unharmed earlier this month after a similar attack on the airport.

Somalia's shaky transitional government, formed in 2004 with the help of the United Nations, has been battling an insurgency.

After militants seized control of the capital, Mogadishu, and most of southern Somalia in 2006, the government called in troops from neighboring Ethiopia to help oust them.

The insurgency that started soon after remains a potent and disruptive force, and a continuing threat to Yusuf's government, which is backed by both the United States and European Union.

The country also is facing a worsening humanitarian crisis aggravated by high global food prices and drought.