Explosions, gunfire rock Somali capital

Mogadishu, Jan 20: More than a dozen explosions rocked Mogadishu and gunfire rattled out last night in the latest outbreak of violence in chaotic Somalia.

''I have heard 14 mortars falling and exploding, and now there is gunfire,'' said Reuters reporter Sahal Abdulle.

Ethiopian troops who helped the Somali interim government drive Islamists out of Mogadishu over the New Year have in past days been the target of attacks from unknown groups.

Suspicion has fallen on remnants of the defeated Islamists, who vowed to launch guerrilla strikes against the Ethiopians whom they regard as illegitimate occupiers of Somalia.

Addis Ababa wants to pull its troops out of neighbouring Somalia within days, but analysts say that risks leaving a power vacuum that could see the Horn of Africa nation slide back into anarchy. The African Union is trying to muster a peacekeeping force.

REUTERS