Feb 6, 2007, 14:20 GMT
Mogadishu - Unidentified militiamen launched a mortar attack on the presidential palace in Mogadishu Tuesday, in a continuing spiral of violence that has plagued the city since the arrival of Ethiopian-backed government troops in December.
Fierce explosions were heard outside the palace, known as Villa Somalia, but President Abdullahi Yusuf was at the government's base in the western town of Baidoa.
'There was heavy explosion but there have been no casualties,' Colonel Abdurasak Hassan, the presidential palace's chief of security, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. 'Islamist militia are throwing mortar shells, but we will get rid of them the coming days.'
The transitional government has blamed a recent rise in attacks on Islamist fighters, who were once part of a group that ruled most of the anarchic country for six months. Some radical Islamists have vowed to wage an Iraq-style insurgency on the new leaders.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Ethiopian forces said they were holding in custody a former leader of the Union of Islamic Courts who was based in the country's south.
The former regional governor of Jubba province Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed Islam told reporters that Ethiopian forces captured him after he was wounded by US airstrikes on Somalia's southern tip last month.
Mohamed Islam was the highest ranking Islamic leader revealed to be held by the joint Ethiopian and government forces. Former chairman Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who turned himself in to Kenyan authorities last month, was now seeking asylum in Yemen.
The government has said it will meet with moderate Islamists in reconciliation talks to bring some stability to the country. The EU has said it will not release nearly 20 million dollars slated for a peacekeeping mission unless the two sides reconcile.
The government has been struggling to assert its authority over the capital, despite backing by Ethiopian troops who are set to leave as an African Union peacekeeping mission is forged.
Somalia was plunged into lawlessness and warlord rule after dictator Mohammed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991.
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