Friday, February 23, 2007
Officials said there were no causalities, but the report was not independently confirmed.
"I saw the attack and was scared," said Mohammed Ahmed, a resident who lives near the facility in southern Mogadishu.
Earlier, two local Mogadishu officials in the increasingly lawless Somali capital were shot dead by unidentified gunmen, highlighting the worsening insecurity here.
When the latest airport attacks occurred, planes owned by Kenyan-based African Airways and Air Djibouti were at the facility that is controlled by the government of President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.
The attacks were among a series of raids in the coastal city since Ethiopian troops helped Somali government fighters oust the powerful Islamist movement from Mogadishu late last year.
The transitional government, supported by many of the clan warlords whose rival militias carved up Somalia after dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991, has pledged to restore order in Mogadishu.
But until neighbouring Ethiopia intervened, the Islamic Courts Union had controlled the capital since June last year and established its authority over other southern towns and regions.
Ethiopia justified intervention by claiming the Islamists were a direct threat, and was backed by the United States which accuses them of Al-Qaeda links. The move has prompted mixed feelings among Mogadishu residents.
Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi has repeatedly called for an urgent deployment of AU peacekeepers to Somalia.
Source: AFP, Feb 23, 2007