Somali president escapes mortar attack by suspected Islamic insurgents

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Islamic insurgents fired mortars at the airport as a plane carrying President Abdullahi Yusuf was about to take off Sunday, officials said. The president was unharmed. Sunday's attack at Mogadishu's airport was not an assassination attempt but a bid to disrupt his departure for a UN Security Council meeting, presidential spokesman Hussein Mohamed Mohamud said. The insurgents "tried to disrupt the president's departure to Djibouti but they failed," Mohamud told The Associated Press. He said Yusuf's plane took off safely soon after the attack. Yusuf is set to meet the Security Council, which is making a six-nation Africa trip to promote peace, in neighboring Djibouti on Monday.