A plane carrying 11 people burst into flames and crashed in north Mogadishu on Friday during the third day of clashes between rebels and government troops backed by Ethiopian soldiers, officials said.
Local private radio Shabelle said the plane, a Russian-made Ilyushin used in the area to transport both cargo and troops, was hit by a missile as it took off from Mogadishu. Witnesses could not confirm that. "I saw the plane on fire ... One of the wings exploded in the air ... When it hit the ground, another explosion occurred," Hassan Mahamud Jama, a resident of the area, told Reuters.
Columns of smoke billowed up from the wooded area in the outskirts of north Mogadishu where the plane came down, said a Reuters reporter who was near the scene. A government source, who asked not to be named, told Reuters the plane was an Ilyushin carrying technicians who had been working on another damaged plane at Mogadishu airport belonging to an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force in Somalia.
AU spokesman Captain Paddy Ankunda said 11 people were on board, but could not say what had caused the crash. "It's too early to say if it was hit by a missile or not," he said.
Insurgents believed to be a mixture of militant Islamists and disgruntled clan militia are striking daily against the government, their Ethiopian allies, and a contingent of 1,200 Ugandan soldiers in the vanguard of the AU force.
At least 16 people have been killed and hundreds more wounded this week in the bloodiest clashes since the government and Ethiopian troops seized the coastal city from rival Islamists three months ago. The Red Cross estimated 300 were injured this week.
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