Ten die in shelling duel as military aircraft lands Mogadishu airport

MOGADISHU, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Ten civilians have been killed and more than fifteen others wounded Friday after shells were exchanged between insurgent fighters and African Union peacekeepers at the airport following the arrival of an aircraft carrying supplies for the peacekeepers landed, local media and spokesman for the peacekeepers said.
"A plane carrying supplies for our forces arrived at the airport then several mortar shells were fired against the airport," Barigye Ba-Hoku, spokesman for the African Union mission for Somalia (AMISOM) told Xinhua. "We responded to these attacks since we have the right to self defense."
A number of shells landed in different neighborhoods in the south of the capital where ten people have been separately killed while fifteen others were wounded, local media reported.
Islamist insurgents have this week threatened to target airplanes coming to the Mogadishu airport which they say is being used by what they described as "enemy forces".
No commercial plane has since landed at the airport. The military plane for AMISOM is the first to use the airport since the insurgent issued their warning on a website posting.
Ba-Hoku said that none of their troops were hurt in the attack and that the plane safely landed.
The airport is a base for the Ugandan contingent of the African Union peacekeepers and is used by both civilian and military planes.
The airport is also being used by a number of locally chartered planes that do daily flights to and from neighboring countries and to United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia