al-shabaab Somali jehadist target new Somali president with mortars

MOGADISHU, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Rebels fired mortar bombs at the presidential palace in Mogadishu on Saturday hours after Somalia's new President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed returned to the capital following his election at U.N.-led talks in Djibouti. Ahmed has promised to build on his record of bringing security when his Islamist forces ruled much of the country, which has been racked by war for 18 years. African Union peacekeepers said the attack was intended to provoke return fire. "We just ignored them," Major Barigye Ba-Hoku, spokesman for the AU's small AMISOM mission in the city, told Reuters. "They are provocative and expect us to respond but we are not ready to. They want an excuse to accuse AMISOM of attacking civilians. We never do that." A government security officer said several mortars were fired at the hilltop Villa Somalia palace, but no one was hurt. Abdullahi Qadar, an official working for the new president, said Ahmed had ordered government forces and the AU peacekeepers not to return fire to avoid civilian casualties. Ahmed, a moderate, headed a sharia courts group that brought some stability to Mogadishu and most of southern Somalia in 2006, before Washington's main regional ally Ethiopia invaded to oust them. Ethiopia's military withdrew last month, clearing the way for Ahmed's election in Djibouti a week ago.more..http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L7063649.htm