MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Somali insurgents fired mortars at Mogadishu’s presidential palace and ambushed departing Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers on Wednesday, underlining fears of more bloodshed in Somalia after the Ethiopian regime’s pullout. Witnesses said security forces including African Union (AU) peacekeepers guarding the hill-top palace compound in the coastal capital responded with volleys of artillery shells, shaking the city for several hours.

Then suspected militants from the al Shabaab group ambushed a convoy of departing Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers on a street not far from the palace. The Ethiopians Woyanne invaders fought back with a tank.

Some analysts say the ongoing withdrawal of some 3,000 Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers will leave a vacuum, triggering more violence by rebels who have battled the U.N.-backed administration for two years, and are now increasingly fighting each other.

Others believe the Ethiopian Woyanne exit could remove forces seen by many locals as occupiers and spur more moderate Islamist factions to participate in forming a new, inclusive government.

After vacating four bases on Tuesday, the Ethiopians Woyannes left two more on Wednesday, one at a football stadium.

“The Ethiopians Woyannes have deserted the stadium and many residents have come to watch,” witness Abdullahi Hassan told Reuters.

“We see only chairs and their footprints.”

The Ethiopian Woyanne have eight other bases in Mogadishu and face a 500 km (300 mile) journey through Somalia to the border.

Somalis are pessimistic about a return to peace in a nation that has suffered 18 years of incessant civil conflict.

“No Somali wants the Ethiopians Woyannes to stay, but there will be chaos whether they withdraw or not,” said a spokesman of Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca, a government-allied Sunni Islamist group.
Hardliners Plan Atacks

He said hardliners like al Shabaab—which Washington says has links to al Qaeda—and militants backed by Somali exiles in Eritrea planned to fight the government and moderate groups like his if they tried to form a power-sharing administration.

Al Shabaab’s national spokesman, Sheikh Muktar Robow Mansoor, told a news conference in Mogadishu his group would focus on attacking AU troops and government targets.

“Now that the Ethiopians Woyannes have left the bases we used to attack, we shall launch attacks on (AU mission) AMISOM, the government and the airport,” he said.

The AU has 3,500 soldiers in Somalia and wants to reinforce.

Fighting has killed more than 16,000 civilians since the start of 2007, after the Meles regime in Ethiopia sent military forces to help the government drive an Islamist movement out of the capital. One million people have been forced from their homes.

Ethiopia’s regime, frustrated by rifts in the Somali administration and the cost of its operation, began dismantling its main bases in Mogadishu on Tuesday.