President escapes injury in attack

Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf escaped unhurt from a mortar attack on his official residence in Mogadishu, hours after returning from an overseas trip, one of his aides said.

Yusuf was in the heavily guarded presidential compound at the time of the shelling, the aide said, but it was unclear whether the attack was directly targeting the president, whose forces are battling gunmen loyal to an Islamist movement that ruled Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia for six months in 2006.

Yusuf, 73, had arrived in the capital in the morning after seeking medical treatment abroad.