Several mortar shells hit the presidential residence in Mogadishu yesterday, killing five civilians nearby, just hours after Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed moved there from a provincial town.
"The mortars landed inside and outside Villa Somalia, but Somali and Ethiopian troops did not respond," eyewitness Jana Abdullahi, a taxi driver, said.
It was not known whether Yusuf was in the building at the time of the attack, but at least five civilians were reported killed in crossfire.
"I have seen two children who were killed by a mortar shell in their house that is near the presidential palace. It was terrible," resident Abdul-Hafib Ali said.
Another resident said the attackers arrived near the residence in small vehicles and sealed off the neighborhood.
"They did not cover their faces, but they told civilians not to approach before they started firing," resident Muhamoud Jeylani said.
Eyewitness Abdallaj Haji Hassan said the government troops did respond to the attack, with mortar fire which hit the ground and caused no casualties.
Residents said the fighting was brief before the attackers fled.
The Somali president moved to the volatile port city a day after parliament voted to relocate the whole government from provincial town of Baidoa, where it has set up base.
Five people, including three local officials, died in two separate attacks yesterday before the shelling of the presidential residence.
Ethiopian troops were the target of one of those attacks and the other was on the car of the city's deputy mayor.
Meanwhile in the Mogadishu city center, the car of deputy mayor Omar Ibrahim Saweye blew up in flames, injuring him and killing three senior local government officials, witnesses said, unable to say what caused the blast.
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