The aircraft landed safely and was not hit, said Eydurus Sheik, an immigration officer. But within hours, the capital was rocked by violence as government forces battled the Islamic militants, witnesses said.
At least seven civilians were killed, according to Mogadishu resident Said Nur Farah, whose brother was among the dead.
“We collected his body from under a tree,” Farah said. “He had been talking to friends when the shell landed.”
The violence comes days after Islamic insurgents who want to topple the government vowed to attack any planes using Mogadishu’s international airport. The Islamic group objects to the airport being used by troops from Ethiopia and the African Union, which it accuses of propping up the fragile government.
“These mortars will not deter us from doing our job,” Barigye Bahoku, a spokesman for the African Union peacekeeping force in the capital, told The Associated Press. He said the shells landed outside the airport’s walls.
The AU has about 2,000 peacekeepers in Somalia, far fewer than the 8,000 planned. The troops are mostly based at the airport due to the daily violence in the capital.
One of the most violent and impoverished nations in the world, Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991. The insurgency has killed thousands of civilians since early 2007.
Islamic militants with ties to al-Qaida have been fighting the government and its Ethiopian allies for control since their combined forces pushed the Islamists from the capital in December 2006. But the government has failed to deliver any basic services, is riddled with corruption and comes under daily attack.
Khat not affected: BBC
Meawhile, the BBC’s Mohamed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says the African Union peacekeepers’ plane that touched down on Friday was the first known to have landed in four days.
Reuters news agency reported that the AU plane and the peacekeepers it brought in were safe, but that at least four civilians had died in the ensuing battle.
Al-Shabab issued a threat last weekend to stop planes using Mogadishu airport as of Tuesday.
The group described the airport, which is used for official and commercial flights, as a tool of Ethiopia’s “occupation” of Somalia.
Commercial flights and planes carrying goods and supplies, including medicines, have been unable to land, our correspondent reports.
But he says flights carrying khat, a mild stimulant popular in Somalia, have continued to arrive at an airstrip outside the capital.
Meanwhile, Mohamed Sheikh Ali, head of Somalia’s civil aviation, said on Friday that authorities had revoked the licenses of private airlines including Daalo, Jubba, African Air and Galad that had refused to operate out of Mogadishu because of the threat.
“They accepted internet propaganda and ignored a government call of security guarantee and a request of continuation of flights,” he said.
Somalia has been wracked by conflict since 1991, when former President Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted.
