Somali insurgents fired mortars at Mogadishu's main airport on Thursday just after President Abdullahi Yusuf took off, in the latest of an upsurge of attacks since a peace deal was signed, officials said. "The president's plane had taken off for Addis Ababa five minutes before insurgents began shelling the airport," a presidential aide told Reuters.
Islamist-led insurgents have stepped up their campaign against the Somali government, since some opposition figures signed a UN-brokered peace pact with the government on Monday. Officials for an African Union peacekeeping force in Mogadishu, which guards the airport, confirmed Thursday's attack, but could not give details.