MOGADISHU —
Somalia's parliament came under mortar
fire on Monday as the country's newly elected lawmakers were meeting for only
the second time since taking office, an attack claimed by the Islamist militant
group Al-Shabaab.
اضافة اعلان
Several people were reportedly injured but no lawmakers were
harmed when several rounds of mortar shells landed near parliament in the
heavily fortified compound in the capital Mogadishu, officials and a witness said.
The attack occurred as lawmakers were setting dates for
parliamentary ballots to choose speakers for the lower and upper house — the
next stage in a stuttering process to elect the fragile nation's new president.
The new members of the Senate and the House of the People
were sworn in on Thursday after elections held more than a year behind schedule
that were marred by deadly violence and a power struggle between the current
president and the prime minister.
The upper house will vote on April 26 to choose a speaker,
with the lower house choosing its president the following day, officials said.
As Monday's parliamentary session was being streamed live on
television several explosions were heard and lawmakers were told to stay
inside.
"We have no details yet but these explosions were
caused by mortar fire, the legislators were safe and unharmed inside the
building when the incident occurred," a security officer who asked not to
be named told AFP.
“I was in the area when the mortar shells landed outside the
building where the parliamentarians were meeting, several people were wounded
lightly in one of the blasts,” witness Abdukadir Ali said.
Al-Shabaab, the Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group that has
been waging an insurgency against the central government for more than a
decade, claimed responsibility for the attack in a brief statement.
The UN mission in Somalia
UNSOM issued a statement
condemning the mortar attack.
It said it "stands firm with
Somalis in their efforts
to complete the electoral process and progress on national priorities."
Some parliamentary seats remain unfilled but sufficient
lawmakers have been sworn in to move the election process forward.
So far, 297 have taken the oath of office, from a possible
329 members for both houses.
Somalia has not held a one-person, one-vote election in 50
years.
Instead, elections follow a complex indirect model, whereby
state legislatures and clan delegates pick lawmakers for the national
parliament, who in turn choose the president.
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