Somalia

Somali president's convoy attacked ahead of talks

Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf AhmedNairobi, Mogadishu - Islamic insurgents attacked the Somali president's convoy as he prepared to fly out to Ethiopia for crisis talks aimed at healing a rift with the prime minister, reports said Friday.

The BBC reported that insurgents detonated two landmines near President Abdullahi Yusuf's convoy as he travelled to the airport in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Ethiopian troops opened fire after the attack and killed five civilians, the BBC said.

Six Somali civilians dead as Ethiopian troops fire on minibus

SomaliMogadishu - Six civilians died and four were wounded when Ethiopian troops opened fired on a minibus just south of the Somali capital Mogadishu, witnesses said Thursday.

A witness told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the Ethiopians "opened fire indiscriminately" shortly after a gun battle between Islamic insurgents and Ethiopian soldiers protecting a convoy.

Yusuf Haji, a resident in the town of Walaweyn, told dpa that the minibus was attacked late on Wednesday evening as it passed through an area near the scene of an earlier gunfight.

Three die in Somalia plane crash

Mogadishu - Three people died Wednesday after a small aircraft carrying khat, a narcotic leaf, crashed as it tried to land at an airport near the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Somali pirates release two German hostages, official says

Somali piratesMogadishu - Somali pirates have released a German couple kidnapped in late June as they sailed through the Gulf of Aden, a local official said Saturday.

The official from the port town of Bosasso in the semi-autonomous Puntland region told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the couple, identified only as Juergen and Sabine, had arrived in the town and were waiting to fly out.

Pirates abducted the couple from their yacht off the lawless Horn of Africa nation's coast on June 23 and demanded a ransom of 2 million dollars.

At five children killed in Somalia clashes

Somali protestersMogadishu - Clashes between Islamic rebels and government soldiers in the north of the Somali capital Mogadishu left a number of people dead including five children between the ages of 6 and 13, it was reported Monday.

The children, pupils at a Koran school, were reported by witnesses to have been trying to flee as rebels attacked an Ethiopian military base on Sunday evening.

In another incident, two youths were killed when a grenade exploded on a football field where the teenagers were playing.

Aid agencies rethinking Somali position as attacks increase

Mogadishu - Aid agencies are considering suspending operations in conflict-stricken Somalia as deadly attacks against humanitarian workers ramp up, reports said Monday.

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