MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf escaped unhurt from a mortar attack on his official residence in the capital on Saturday, hours after returning to Mogadishu from an overseas trip, one of his aides said.
"Four mortars were fired at the presidential palace. Threeof them landed outside, while one landed inside the compound.No one was hurt," the aide, who declined to be named, toldReuters.
He confirmed that Yusuf was in the heavily guardedpresidential compound at the time of the shelling, but it wasunclear whether the attack was directly targeting thepresident, whose forces are battling an Islamist insurgency.
Yusuf arrived in Mogadishu in the morning after seekingmedical treatment abroad. The 73-year-old who had a livertransplant nearly 14 years ago left Somalia on January 4, amonth after a chest illness sparked a health scare.
Presidential spokesman Hussein Mohamud Hubsired saidYusuf's "main priority is to hasten the government's works" andto continue reconciliation efforts to establish lasting peace.
A local human rights group said on Saturday that nearly 300civilians were killed last month in Mogadishu.
The chairman of the Elman Peace and Human RightsOrganisation, Sudan Ali Ahmed, said 292 civilians were killedand 385 wounded in January alone.
He estimated that 2 million Somalis had fled their homes inthe lawless capital since Islamist leaders were routed fromtheir strongholds in January 2007, triggering an insurgency byremnants of the movement.
Ahmed said his group had 116 staff who worked undercover tocollate numbers of casualties.
"Sometimes we happen to witness the incidents ourselves andwe generally coordinate with local hospitals and the media,"Ahmed told Reuters in a phone interview.
Violence in Mogadishu has been punctuated by roadsidebombings and grenade attacks by insurgents, which has drawnretaliatory gunfire from government troops and their Ethiopianallies.
(Reporting by Aweys Yusuf and Abdi Sheikh; Writing by KatieNguyen; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)
