By Sahal Abdulle
Mogadishu - Gunmen fired rockets near Mogadishu's airport on Wednesday, witnesses said, apparently heeding an Islamist call to fight African Union peacekeepers arriving to help the interim government restore order.
Rival Islamist leaders, defeated in a brief offensive by government troops and their Ethiopian allies late last year, have vowed to wage guerrilla war against any foreign forces.
Hospital sources said one civilian was killed and at least four others wounded when insurgents launched rockets and grenades at a white AU armoured car and two trucks carrying Ethiopian soldiers, loyal to the government.
A senior AU official said no peacekeepers were hurt.
"When the attack happened, they had already passed and were not involved," he told Reuters.
A witness said the AU troops returned fire after two rocket-propelled grenades were launched at them, hitting a nearby restaurant.
The explosions lit up the dusk sky and tracer bullets fired by the Ethiopians flashed overhead. Government troops based nearby also opened fire, witnesses said.
"We saw this huge explosion and dived to the ground. We lay there for three or four minutes, and when the shooting calmed a bit we got our cars and fled the area," said one taxi driver, who gave his name as Yusuf.
The attacks took place in a busy part of the city where dozens of minibuses were loading passengers.
"When the explosions happened the streets were full and no one was expecting this and we started running," said resident Hawo Halene.
Insurgents fired mortar bombs at Mogadishu's airport on Tuesday shortly after several hundred Ugandan troops landed as the vanguard of the proposed 8 000-strong AU force.
"The action we started carrying out yesterday will continue," an Islamist source told Reuters.
The Ugandans were the first peacekeepers to arrive in Mogadishu since a United States and United Nations operation ended in failure in 1995 after relentless street battles with local militias forced them to finally withdraw.
Somalia. 

Ugandan troops arriving in Somalia as part of an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force, came under attack even before they went on patrol.

The Ugandan troops, 400 of whom arrived on Tuesday and another 400 the day after, were deployed to the capital Mogadishu as replacements for Ethiopian troops to support the Transitional Federal Parliament (TFP). 

Ethiopia intervened to help the TFP oust the Islamic Courts Union (IUC), which had held power for six months.

"Convoys of Ugandan troops were ambushed as they were passing the main junction in Mogadishu, and they exchanged heavy gunfire with the insurgents," said Shino Abdukadir, an eyewitness.

Somalia's Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle said the Ugandan troops suffered no casualties. There were 10 civilians killed in the attack.

Assane Ba of the African Union said: "The AU has promised to deploy in Somalia and in Mogadishu. The attacks and threats do not set back the deployment."

A Mogadishu radio station broadcast a message from IUC member and Hizbul Shabaab leader, Aden Hashi Ayro, calling for attacks on the peacekeepers. "It is time for the Somali youth to fight the occupation by Ethiopia and others. The Muslims shall not surrender to non-believers."