Mogadishu Mortar Attack Kills 3 Family Members

At least three people belonging to the same family were killed and three others wounded when mortar shells landed on their home in Mogadishu Friday, a security official and witnesses said.

The shells struck the southern Mogadishu suburb of Danwadagta near a security checkpoint for the airport in the Somali capital.

"Three civilians died and three others were wounded after mortar shells hit their house," said security official Abdi Muhidin.

"Two of the dead were a mother and her daughter and all of the victims belong to the same family," said witness Awale Yasin.

The attack is the second this week in Mogadishu after a car bomb at a restaurant left seven dead on Wednesday.

In southern Somalia, a minibus hit a landmine on Thursday, killing 19 people in an area hotly contested between Al- Shabaab extremists and government and African Union troops.

While the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab have lost large swathes of territory and were forced out of Mogadishu by African Union troops in 2011, they continue to strike in the capital and countryside.

Shabaab has not claimed any of the attacks, although they regularly carry out similar bombings and mortar strikes.

Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed on Thursday pledged a new war against the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab, giving militants 60 days to surrender or "face the consequences".