Advertisement

Suspected insurgents shot down a cargo plane over Mogadishu, killing all 11 on board, during a third straight day of clashes with Ethiopian troops propping up the Somali government.

The Belarussian plane was hit by a rocket on Friday shortly after takeoff from Mogadishu airport and crashed in the northern Karan neighbourhood, Somali government spokesman Hussein Mohamed Muhamoud told the agency.

"Three rockets were fired at the plane and one of them hit the plane. This is an act that will not be accepted by the Somali people and government," he said.

"All the 11 are dead. Ten died on the spot and one died in hospital," a Red Cross-Red Crescent official, who asked not to be named, said on Saturday.

The Red Cross-Red Crescent, which operates at the hospital where the victims of the crash had been brought, did not specify their nationalities.

Airport officials said the plane had brought engineers and equipment to Mogadishu to repair another that two weeks ago had been hit by a rocket fired by Islamist fighters and seriously damaged when landing.

Yesterday's rocket attack came as fighting erupted for a third straight day in Mogadishu, breaking a ceasefire agreement between Somalia's powerful Hawiye clan and the Ethiopian army made only hours earlier.

Both sides confirmed a ceasefire meeting had taken place yesterday, with a spokesman for Hawiye clan elders claiming a deal had been struck while Ethiopian officials saying it had fallen short of truce.