MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Mortar shells fired into homes in the Somali capital of Mogadishu has killed three people and wounded five, police and ambulance services said on Friday, a day after the government changed heads of security agencies.

Police said they suspected al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab were behind the attack, in which mortar rounds landed on homes in Wadajir district, in the vicinity of Mogadishu airport.

“We have carried three dead women and five others injured, including a woman and children. Mortars landed on their home today,” Abdikadir Abdirahman, the director of Amin ambulance services, told Reuters on Friday.

“Mortars believed to be fired by al Shabaab killed three people of the same family and injured several others. We are still investigating where they were fired from,” Osman Mohamed, a police officer, told Reuters on Friday.

Al Shabaab were not immediately reachable for comment. In the past, the group, which aims to impose its own harsh version of Islam in Somalia, has taken responsibility for blasts and gun attacks in the capital and elsewhere in Somalia.

On Thursday, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, replaced his security chiefs and called on al Shabaab fighters to surrender within 60 days in return for education and jobs.

Al Shabaab is carrying out increasingly deadly bombings despite losing most of its territory to a 22,000-strong African Union peacekeepers supporting the Somali government.</s>African Union soldiers killed a top al-Shabaab commander in Kuday, Somalia, Saturday, after the terrorist group launched a failed attack on an army installation in the area, military officials said.

Al-Shabaab Commander Bashe Nure Hassan was one of two al-Shabaab militant killed in the engagement that followed the foiled attack, Kenya’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

African Union troops used mortar fire and machine guns to repel the attack, the statement said, noting “scores” of al-Shabaab members were believed injured in the fighting.

The AMISOM forces recovered three rifles, a satellite phone and hundreds of rounds of ammunition from the terrorists. No casualties were reported on the AMISOM side.</s>MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - A police officer says three civilians have been killed in a mortar attack in Somalia's capital.

Capt. Mohamed Hussein said Friday at least two mortars slammed into a residential area in Wadajir district. The area is near the heavily guarded Mogadishu airport, which has seen mortar attacks by extremists in the past.

There is no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attack. It comes a day after President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed ordered a new offensive against the al-Shabab extremist group while offering the extremists a 60-day amnesty to surrender.

The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab has stepped up attacks across the Somali capital in recent weeks.</s>Three civilians have been killed in a mortar attack in Somalia's capital.

At least two mortars hit a residential area in Wadajir district in Mogadishu, a police spokesman said.

The area is near the heavily guarded Mogadishu airport, which has seen mortar attacks by extremists in the past.

The attack comes a day after President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed ordered a new offensive against the al-Shabab extremist group while offering the extremists a 60-day amnesty to surrender.

The al Qaida-linked group has stepped up attacks across the Somali capital in recent weeks.</s>African Union soldiers killed a top al-Shabaab commander in Kuday, Somalia, Saturday, after the terrorist group launched a failed attack on an army installation in the area, military officials said. Al-Shabaab Commander Bashe Nure Hassan was one of two al-Shabaab militant killed in the engagement that followed the foiled attack, Kenya’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement. African Union troops used mortar fire and machine guns to repel the attack, the statement said, noting “scores” of al-Shabaab members were believed injured in the fighting. The AMISOM forces recovered three...
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• Somalia Court Executes Five Militants for Murders of Officials VOA Africa (Today) - Five al-Shabab militants convicted of murdering senior officials in the north eastern Somalia town of...</s>Mortar shells fired into homes in the Somali capital of Mogadishu has killed three people and wounded five, police and ambulance services said on Friday, a day after the government changed heads of security agencies. Police said they suspected al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab were behind the attack, in which mortar rounds landed on homes in Wadajir district, in the vicinity of Mogadishu airport.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Reuters.</s>Oct 6 The U.S. raid in Somalia targeted a Kenyan of Somali origin known by the name Ikrima, described as a foreign fighter commander for al Shabaab in Somalia, U.S. officials told Reuters on Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The United States has not formally named the target of the weekend raid in Somalia, in which Navy SEALS stormed ashore into the al Shabaab stronghold of Barawe. One U.S. official has previously said the target was neither killed or captured.</s>Oct 6 Somalia's prime minister said on Sunday his government was working with international partners and neighbouring states to combat al Shabaab, in the first remarks by the government since Saturday's raid by U.S. forces on a militant base.

"We have collaboration with the world and with neighbouring countries in the battle against al Shabaab," Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon told reporters when asked if his government was aware of the raid on the Somali port of Barawe, south of Mogadishu.

U.S. forces conducted raids in Libya and Somalia on Saturday, two weeks after the attack on a Nairobi shopping mall which was claimed by al Shabaab, capturing an al Qaeda figure in Tripoli wanted for the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. The raid on Barawe failed to take its target.</s>The AU force known as AMISOM will have more than 22,000 troops when the reinforcements agreed last week arrive.

Brigadier Dick Olum, a Ugandan commander in charge of one of the four AMISOM sectors covering Somalia, said the extra 4,000 soldiers could tilt the military balance against al Shabaab.

"I'm very confident that with 4,000 new troops, AMISON will definitely consider a new offensive," he told Reuters. "We shall not be referred to as sitting ducks any more."

AMISOM has driven al Shabaab rebels from the capital Mogadishu and several coastal towns since 2011, but became overstretched and the offensive stalled earlier this year.

With rebels still controlling many parts of Somalia, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud's Western-backed government has struggled to exert full control and end more than two decades of fighting that has plagued the Horn of Africa state.

The insecurity is obstructing plans to create a federal state in Somalia and curb the power of Islamic militancy, viewed as a threat by Western powers and their African allies.

Al Shabaab has promised reprisals against nations contributing troops to AMISOM, such as Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya, and claimed responsibility for an attack on a Nairobi shopping mall in September that killed 67 people.

Olum said a United Nations call for countries to consider supplying AMISOM with up to 12 military helicopters could prove crucial in broadening its reach and operational capabilities.

Brigadier Walter Raria, a Kenyan commander in charge of AMISOM sector 2, said gathering timely intelligence for combat was one of the main problems facing Kenyan and Sierra Leone troops fighting al Shabaab in southern Somalia.

"Without real-time information, sometimes it can be a challenge to operate," he told reporters at the AMISOM base in Kismayu airport, often used by Kenyan surveillance drones.

Although al Shabaab has suffered severe setbacks over the last two years, the insurgents still control a string of important towns on the coast and in central Somalia.

Since May, al Shabaab has changed tactics from conventional to guerrilla warfare, selecting targets that include the government, state bodies and the United Nations, according to a joint U.N. and African Union review of AMISOM.

Olum said AMISOM was considering which al Shabaab strongholds to target and cited the port city of Barawe as a critical area.

Halfway between Mogadishu and southern port city of Kismayu, Barawe is the biggest port still held by the militants. Ports remain Somalia's most prized economic assets as they are a source of revenue and an entry point for weapons. (Reporting by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Alistair Lyon)</s>BOSSASO, Somalia: Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region on Saturday executed five people it said were Islamist militants responsible for killing three senior government officials last year, a military court official said.

Abdifatah Haji Aden, chairman of Puntland's military court, said the five were behind the killings of a director at Puntland's presidential palace, a military prosecutor and a deputy police commander in the port city of Bossaso in December.

The court said the accused were members of the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militant group.

"They had admitted being al Shabaab and killing Puntland officials. We had sentenced them earlier and the execution was carried out today," Aden told Reuters.

"They had killed a deputy police commander of Bossaso, a director at the Puntland palace and a prosecutor in Bossaso."

Al Shabaab's insurgency aims to expel African Union peacekeepers, topple Somalia's Western-backed government and impose its strict version of Islam on the Horn of Africa state.

The group has become more active in Puntland after being pushed out of strongholds further south by the African Union force and the Somali army, experts and officials say.
Mortar rounds are fired in a neighborhood in Wadajir District, Somalia, killing three civilians. Al-Shabaab is suspected of being behind the attack.