Mortars fired at Mogadishu airport,1 killed

Mogadishu, Jan 24: Mortars were fired at Mogadishu airport today, killing one person and injuring another, minutes after a UN delegation arrived in the Somali capital, a Somali government source said.

''A UN delegation just arrived and as soon as they left the plane, two mortar shells hit the airport,'' the source said.

''They ran into the waiting room and we immediately whisked them out of the airport. ... One person was killed while another was injured,'' the source said, adding the victims were Somalis working at the airport.

A witness said he saw three mortars being fired.

''They fired three mortars ... close to the airstrip,'' an aid worker who saw the attack told Reuters.

The delegation from the UN Development Programme was later taken to an agency compound in the capital.

A spate of attacks, mainly against Ethiopian troops backing Somalia's interim government, have rocked the capital since they helped oust Islamists from Mogadishu and much of the south in a lightning December offensive.

REUTERS

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