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Dubai/Nairobi: The main insurgent group in Somalia claimed an attack targeting President Abdullahi Yousuf Ahmad as he was preparing to fly out of the country, according to an internet statement on Friday.
"The lions from the Young Mujahedeen Movement launched a surprise attack on Thursday against the convoy of the apostate Abdullahi Yousuf ... as he was heading to Mogadishu airport," said the statement published on a website used by radical groups, including Al Qaida.
The President escaped the ambush but insurgents then fired mortar bombs at the airport, disrupting his travel, said the statement, whose authenticity could not be verified.
An African Union peacekeeper had said that three mortar shells exploded at Mogadishu airport on Thursday as Yousuf's plane was preparing to take off for Addis Ababa, but that no-one was injured.
However, five civilians were killed in the fighting on Thursday between insurgents and Somali forces, which are backed by Ethiopian troops.
Driver gunned down
Gunmen fatally shot a driver for the UN food agency in southern Somalia.
The World Food Programme said Hassan Abdi's death near the village of Lego marks the third killing of a WFP-contracted driver in the country this year.
Abdi was gunned down while travelling in a convoy of trucks carrying 328 metric tonnes of relief food.
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