Rebels attack Ugandan troop camp in Mogadishu: African Union

MOGADISHU (AFP) — Somali rebels launched an overnight attack on a camp of Ugandan troops in Mogadishu, triggering fighting that left at least one insurgent dead, African Union peacekeepers said Saturday.

AU spokesman captain Paddy Ankunda said insurgents had attacked Ugandan troops based in Mogadishu's K-4 neighbourhood, prompting them to return fire.

"They fired rocket-propelled grenades into our base, but we killed one of them. We have a duty to defend ourselves," Ankunda told AFP.

A resident in southern Mogadishu, where the camp is based, confirmed there were clashes and said he had seen one body.

"There was heavy fighting in K-4 area last night and this morning. I have seen a dead body in the area," said Muhsin Ali.

One policeman and one civilian were killed when a roadside bomb struck a passenger bus in Mogadishu's southern Medina neighbourhood later on Saturday, police said.

"A policeman and a civilian were killed in the attack while five other people were injured," police official Ali Hashi Dhabare told AFP.

Witnesses said the explosion targeted a police patrol truck.

The raid on the AU peacekeepers camp comes days after a commander of the Islamist-led insurgents urged his fighters to step up attacks on Ugandan troops.

Commander Adan Hashi Ayro told his fighters on Wednesday to kill the peacekeepers in a bid to drive pro-government forces out of Somalia.

Rebels have killed five Ugandan troops since March when the country deployed at least 1,600 troops to Mogadishu under an African Union mandate to bolster the weak transitional government.

The AU has failed to mobilise the 8,000 troops it pledged to deploy in Mogadishu.

The Islamist fighters were swept out of Mogadishu earlier this year by mainly Ethiopian forces but have since waged a bloody insurgency in the Somali capital that continues to claim almost daily lives.

The United Nations and the European parliament have called for a probe into alleged war crimes in Mogadishu after dozens of people were killed and some 170,000 displaced in crackdowns on insurgents in recent weeks.

Bloody clan feuds and power struggles, which intensified after the 1991 overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, have undermined repeated bids to stabilise Somalia.