Somalia Firing

A security team on a bulk carrier exchanged fire with armed individuals on a skiff after it came suspiciously close to the vessel in the Arabian Sea, British maritime monitors said on Saturday.

At least seven people were killed after two car bombs exploded outside a popular Mogadishu hotel Wednesday, and gunmen forced their way inside the building and opened fire, police said.

A huge blast rocked a hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu today, followed by heavy machinegun fire, said an AFP photographer at the scene.

The pilot of a passenger plane that was damaged in an explosion and fire over Somalia described on Wednesday how the crew jumped into action to fly the plane back to Mogadishu airport and keep the passengers calm even as smoke enveloped the passenger cabin and wind rushed through a hole blown through the fuselage.

Heavily armed fighters from the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab attacked a base for African Union peacekeepers in southwestern Somalia on Friday, blasting their way into the compound and exchanging fire with peacekeepers, a Somali military official said.

Insurgents in Somalia's capital fired a barrage of mortar rounds today targeting the highly fortified presidential palace and main government compound, killing a guard, security officials said.

A Somali official said that gunmen have attacked the African Union(AU) base in Mogadishu. Mohamed Abdi, a policeman at the capital's airport, which shares a fence with the AU base, said today there was an exchange of fire between the gunmen and troops.

Suspected Shebab militants attacked Somalia's intelligence headquarters and detention facility in central Mogadishu on Sunday, setting off a bomb and opening fire on the complex, police and witnesses said.

Islamist militants hurled grenades at the gate of a hotel in central Somalia on Thursday then opened fire as they burst into the building used by Somali soldiers and Djiboutian African Union peacekeepers, residents said.

Kenya's security chiefs were under mounting pressure Tuesday to resign after Islamist militants carried out another brazen attack, with the government accused of ignoring an increasingly sophisticated threat from Somalia's Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab.

At least 26 people were killed when some 50 insurgents flying black Islamist flags swept into a Kenyan coastal town firing guns in an unprecedented attack, a local government official said Monday.

Three hundred people were feared dead after a boat carrying up to 500 African asylum seekers caught fire and sank off Italian shores in the worst recent refugee disaster in the Mediterranean.

A fire engulfed Kenya's main airport today, forcing the suspension of international passenger flights and choking a vital travel gateway to east Africa.

European naval aircraft fired at pirate-owned supplies on the Somali coastline on Tuesday for the first time since the European Union authorised such strikes. The operation targeted pirate equipment but the statement did not specify the nature of the target or the exact location of the strike.

Somali government troops opened fire at hungry civilians on Friday, killing at least seven people, as both groups made a grab for the food at a U.N. distribution site in the capital of this famine-stricken country, witnesses said.

A security team on a bulk carrier exchanged fire with armed individuals on a skiff after it came suspiciously close to the vessel in the Arabian Sea, British maritime monitors said on Saturday.

At least seven people were killed after two car bombs exploded outside a popular Mogadishu hotel Wednesday, and gunmen forced their way inside the building and opened fire, police said.

A huge blast rocked a hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu today, followed by heavy machinegun fire, said an AFP photographer at the scene.

The pilot of a passenger plane that was damaged in an explosion and fire over Somalia described on Wednesday how the crew jumped into action to fly the plane back to Mogadishu airport and keep the passengers calm even as smoke enveloped the passenger cabin and wind rushed through a hole blown through the fuselage.

Heavily armed fighters from the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab attacked a base for African Union peacekeepers in southwestern Somalia on Friday, blasting their way into the compound and exchanging fire with peacekeepers, a Somali military official said.

Insurgents in Somalia's capital fired a barrage of mortar rounds today targeting the highly fortified presidential palace and main government compound, killing a guard, security officials said.

A Somali official said that gunmen have attacked the African Union(AU) base in Mogadishu. Mohamed Abdi, a policeman at the capital's airport, which shares a fence with the AU base, said today there was an exchange of fire between the gunmen and troops.

Suspected Shebab militants attacked Somalia's intelligence headquarters and detention facility in central Mogadishu on Sunday, setting off a bomb and opening fire on the complex, police and witnesses said.

Islamist militants hurled grenades at the gate of a hotel in central Somalia on Thursday then opened fire as they burst into the building used by Somali soldiers and Djiboutian African Union peacekeepers, residents said.

Kenya's security chiefs were under mounting pressure Tuesday to resign after Islamist militants carried out another brazen attack, with the government accused of ignoring an increasingly sophisticated threat from Somalia's Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab.

At least 26 people were killed when some 50 insurgents flying black Islamist flags swept into a Kenyan coastal town firing guns in an unprecedented attack, a local government official said Monday.

Three hundred people were feared dead after a boat carrying up to 500 African asylum seekers caught fire and sank off Italian shores in the worst recent refugee disaster in the Mediterranean.

A fire engulfed Kenya's main airport today, forcing the suspension of international passenger flights and choking a vital travel gateway to east Africa.

European naval aircraft fired at pirate-owned supplies on the Somali coastline on Tuesday for the first time since the European Union authorised such strikes. The operation targeted pirate equipment but the statement did not specify the nature of the target or the exact location of the strike.

Somali government troops opened fire at hungry civilians on Friday, killing at least seven people, as both groups made a grab for the food at a U.N. distribution site in the capital of this famine-stricken country, witnesses said.