By Nation Correspondent in MOGADISHU
Mortar shells hit parts of central Mogadishu close to the port on Friday evening killing 10 people in a former medical facility.
De Martino Hospital, which has been converted into a lodge for the Somali war veterans of the 1977-1978 conflict between Ethiopia and Somalia, was hit by the shells just as its residents, most of who are disabled, were preparing to break their fast. The shells caused six deaths on the spot and injured 25.
By yesterday morning four more wounded veterans lost their lives at Medina Hospital. “It is one of the most shocking events we witnessed,” said Hassan Sheikh Qalli, a resident in Hamarweyne district, where De Martino Hospital is located.
War veterans
The injured persons included the spokesman of the disabled war veterans, Abdi Ali Mahad.
The Transitional Federal Government was quick to blame the Islamist group, Al-Shabaab, for the attack and the deadly death toll.
Sheikh Abdirizak Mohamed Qaylow, the spokesman of the pro-government paramilitary unit known as Drawiish condemned what he called “the anti-peace” groups.
“The anti-peace (Al-Shabaab) group engages in this kind of merciless act in the course of their drive to defeat the government of Somalia,” said Sheikh Qaylow.
“They do not even care who suffers in civilian populated areas,” he added.
Well-wishers and sympathetic groups gathered this morning at the hospital for the funeral. “We are all shocked,” said a legislator who lost a relative, but declined to be named.
Mogadishu residents have been experiencing intense battles between the TFG and the opposition Islamist groups since early May. Al-Shabaab and Hizbu Islam have declined repeated calls from the government to settle differences through negotiations.
The Somali  (TFG), the internationally recognized government of the former state of Somalia, could not stop an attack conducted by insurgents in the capital as they shelled the city's port; but, some rounds fell short which led to dozens of casualties.

Late last week, Somali insurgents conducted a mortar attack in downtown Mogadishu missing their intended target at the city's seaport; instead, hitting a veteran's hospital killing between 6 and 9 former soldiers and wounding at least 12 others.  Many of the hospital's patients are veterans from  in the Ogaden, according to government spokesman Shiek Abdirisaq Qeylow.  The disabled veterans were gathering and chatting in the hospital's courtyard ready for the  (Futuru), the feast that breaks the dawn-to-dusk fast observed during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, when the shells fell, according to the Associated Free Press.  Their home, De Martino Hospital, was collateral damage in what was meant to be an attack on the seaport according to Mohamed Abdiazis, a Somali Policeman.  Victims were taken to the Medina Hospital which is where four of the victims died.  Eyewitnesses said that several rounds hit the seaport and the main jail.  

Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, Al-Shabab, the militant youth group that has now taken the reigns of the insurgency in Somalia after the dissolution of the , is widely suspected.  Al-Shabab seeks to institute the strictest sense of Shari'a Law in Somalia and is a seam of contention for their participation in the government.  Earlier this year, the newly elected Somali President agreed to implement tenets of Shar'ia into the nation's statutory codes, however negotiations quickly broke down over the details.

While the TFG has made attempts to quell violence in the capital and in other parts of Somalia, little success has been realized.  The government relies on assistance from the African Union to maintain some semblance of order in Mogadishu.  Parts of the country like Somaliland in the north have claimed de-facto independence in the absence of a central government capable of protecting all parts of the country.