Paris AFP (in French) 0943 GMT

Nairobi — The explosions that were heard the night of 8 June at the Mogadishu Presidential Palace (Villa Somalia), were mortar rounds, various diplomatic sources from Nairobi said. Shells fell in the palace courtyard, near the residence of the prime minister, [Lieutenant] General Mohamed Ali Samatar, not far from that of Mohamed Siad Barre, the Somali head of state. Siad and Samatar were both at the Presidential Palace when the explosions took place.

The same sources remarked that only the military possesses mortars. Ten days earlier, an attempted mutiny accompanied by some shooting between members of the Red Berets of Siad’s Presidential Guard, left four soldiers dead, the same sources further disclosed. Shots are heard every night in Mogadishu and last week a grenade was thrown into the courtyard of the U.S. Embassy without killing anyone.

On Saturday morning, the Somali national radio interrupted its usual program in order to make an announcement on an [word indistinct] explosion at the Presidential Palace, travelers said. The next day, the national radio denied the explosion and said that the incident occurred when a member of the Presidential Guard accidentally fired his weapon.

Travelers questioned in the region confirmed that they heard several explosions which could be heard from a distance, starting panic among the population.

The Somali head of state left Mogadishu on Sunday for an official visit to Libya, it was learned from a diplomatic source. Libya is the main supplier of weapons to Siad’s regime whose troops have been constantly crushed in the North by the rebels of the Somali National Movement.

_{FBIS-AFR-90-113, 12 June 1990, p. 1}