Somali leader unhurt in mortar attack on residence

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali President Abdullahi Yusufescaped unhurt from a mortar attack by Islamist insurgents onhis official residence in Mogadishu, his spokesman said.

The interim government and its Ethiopian allies arebattling gunmen loyal to an Islamist movement that ruledMogadishu and much of southern Somalia for six months in 2006before being ousted by the allied forces.

"The president was at the palace when several mortarslanded near the house. The president is safe," said spokesmanHussein Mohamud Hubsired.

"Al-Shabab, which is linked to al Qaeda, was responsiblefor this attack targeting the president," he told Reuters.

Al-Shabab, which opposes the presence of foreign troops onSomali soil, has been waging an Iraq-style insurgency.

The attack took place hours after Yusuf arrived in thecoastal capital from a trip abroad for medical treatment.

The 73-year-old, who had a liver transplant nearly 14 yearsago, left Somalia on January 4, a month after a chest illnesssparked a health scare.

Spokesman Hubsired said Yusuf's main priority was to"hasten the government's works" and to continue reconciliationefforts to establish lasting peace.

A local human rights group said on Saturday that nearly 292civilians were killed and 385 wounded in Mogadishu last monthalone.

The chairman of the Elman Peace and Human RightsOrganisation, Sudan Ali Ahmed, estimated that 2 million Somalishad fled their homes in the capital since January 2007.

Insurgents have carried out bombings and grenade attacks,drawing retaliatory gunfire from allied Somali-Ethiopiantroops.

The United Nations says Somalia is the world's mostpressing humanitarian crisis.

Ahmed, speaking to Reuters, accused the internationalcommunity of paying no attention to abuses in the Horn ofAfrica country, which spiralled into chaos when warlordstoppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

"We can call what is happening in Somalia genocide. Theinternational community ignores the human rights breaches inthe country," Ahmed said by telephone.

"The world should focus on Somalia more because thepopulation is more vulnerable than ever before and all warcrimes in the country must be tried in an internationalcriminal court."

(Additional reporting by Abdi Sheikh; Writing by KatieNguyen; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)