Mortars hit near southern Somali airport: presidential spokesman

Several mortars hit near an airport in the southern Somali city of Kismayo on Thursday where Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud was visiting, said presidential spokesman Abdirahman Osman.

The mortars hit a nearby beach after the Somali president had already left the airport of the strategic port city, 300 km south of the Somali capital.

"The president was not at the airport when the mortars were fired. He was actually at the Presidential Palace in Kismayo. The mortars hit far from the airport," Osman told Xinhua.

There were no reports of causality as a result of the attack, which the spokesman blamed on the radical Islamist group of Al Shabaab. The militant group has not claimed responsibility for the mortars attack.

Al Shabaab had previously launched similar attacks against Somali government forces and African Union peacekeeping forces in the southern city, which was under the control of Al Shabaab militants before they were ousted in 2011.

The Somali president was in Kismayo as part of the government's efforts to reconcile rival militia contesting for the control of the city.

Reconciliation conference for local leaders over the future of the three southern regions of Gedo, Middle Juba and Lower Juba, will be held in Mogadishu next month.

The Somali government and some local leaders agreed on an interim administration that will run the regions until a formal arrangement is reached among rival groups in Kismayo about the future makeup of a regional state.