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 MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - The first peacekeepers to arrive in Somalia's capital in more than 10 years were met with a surge of violence Tuesday, as mortar rounds hit the airport during a welcoming ceremony and a deadly gunbattle broke out on the city's crumbling streets.
The street battles involving masked gunmen killed three people and mortar rounds wounded one, all of them civilians, witnesses and police said. The violence is the latest example of the volatility peacekeepers face in a country that has seen little more than anarchy for years, and where the government backed by Ethiopian troops toppled an Islamic militia only months ago.
"I saw around 100 gunmen engaging in a fierce battle. They used heavy machine guns and rocket propelled grenades," Hassan Abukar Sidow, a Mogadishu resident, told The Associated Press. He said the fighting began after police searched for suspects in the attack on the airport.
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