Rockets fired at Mogadishu port

Assailants fired four rockets at Mogadishu port today in the latest guerrilla attack in post-war Somalia.

Assailants fired four rockets at Mogadishu port today in the latest guerrilla attack in post-war Somalia.

"Fortunately, the rockets plunged into the sea. No one was hurt and port operations are going on," the head of security at the port said.

The pre-dawn rocket attack, which came from a residential area of the coastal city, was the latest in a series of almost daily strikes targeting Somali government installations and the administration's Ethiopian allies.

Officials blame remnants of a defeated Islamist movement, which ran most of south Somalia for six months until it was ousted by a government-Ethiopian offensive over the New Year.

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Some Islamist fighters have vowed a holy war. But instability in Mogadishu could also be due to tensions between warlords and clans in a city which has been a beset by violence since the ousting of the dictator Siad Barre 1991.

Today's attack came after a visit yesterday by an African Union team assessing security prior to a planned deployment of peacekeepers in the Horn of Africa nation.

It is also being connected to a reconciliation workshop opened today by Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi.

The week-long meeting of some 200 traditional leaders and peace and women's rights activists is aimed at preventing lawlessness filling the vacuum left the routed Islamists.