MOGADISHU: Somali insurgents fired mortars at the presidential palace in the capital, killing seven civilians and two government soldiers, witnesses and officials said Wednesday.Military spokesman Farhan Casoye said the insurgents were aiming for the palace but hit a residential area Tuesday night _ the latest bloodshed in a surge of violence this month that has killed nearly 200 people. Insurgents are trying to topple the country's Western-backed government and install a strict Islamic state. `The mortars rained down on our home, I ran with my children for cover and on my way I saw the dead bodies of two government soldiers in uniform, they were hit by a mortar,'' Sahra Abdullahi Gedi, a mother of six The military spokesman said seven civilians were killed.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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