Blast hits AU convoy in Somalia, kills peacekeepers

MOGADISHU, May 16 (Reuters) A roadside bomb struck a convoy of African Union (AU) peacekeepers in Somalia's capital Tuesday, killing an unknown number of Ugandan soldiers, the force's commander said.

''There was a roadside bomb which was directed at one of the vehicles in our convoy. We lost some men and others were wounded, but I have yet to get the full details,'' Peter Elwelu, the AU mission's commanding officer, told Reuters.

Al Arabiya television network reported five soldiers had been killed. The AU could not immediately confirm that.

The explosion shattered a relative calm in Mogadishu that had endured since the end of a second wave of intense battles between insurgents and the interim government backed by its Ethiopian allies.

At least 1,300 people were killed and entire neighbourhoods levelled in the two bouts of fighting with tanks, rockets and machineguns earlier this year.

The clashes, the worst Mogadishu has seen since the 1991 civil war that plunged the country into anarchy, has forced an estimated 365,000 refugees to flee the coastal capital.

The AU contingent of 1,600 soldiers from Uganda, the only peacekeepers in the country, have also been sucked into the fighting because insurgents have declared them targets.

Fighters from a militant Islamist movement defeated by the government and Ethiopian troops in early January have vowed to fight an Iraq-style insurgency.

Security experts say they have adopted tactics from Iraq, like the use of roadside bombs and targeted assassinations of government officials.

REUTERS NY HS1336