AU plane sparks Mogadishu battle

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A peacekeeping plane has landed in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, defying Islamist threats that have kept the airport closed for four days.

Militants responded by launching mortars, provoking a return of fire from government and Ethiopian troops.

The al-Shabab militants who issued the threat that has blocked the arrival of medical and other supplies are not part of peace negotiations in Djibouti.

A ceasefire due to be signed on Friday in Djibouti has been postponed.

An opposition group walked out of a meeting, apparently angered by the presence of the Ethiopian ambassador.

In December 2006, Ethiopian troops helped the interim government to topple Islamist forces who had taken control of much of southern Somalia earlier that year.

The Islamists then launched an insurgency against Somalia's transitional government.

Al-Shabab, the strongest and best organised insurgent group, has refused to take part in the UN-backed peace process in Djibouti, and violence inside Somalia has continued.

Khat not affected

The BBC's Mohamed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says the African Union peacekeepers' plane that touched down on Friday was the first known to have landed in four days.

Reuters news agency reported that the AU plane and the peacekeepers it brought in were safe, but that at least four civilians had died in the ensuing battle.

Al-Shabab issued a threat last weekend to stop planes using Mogadishu airport as of Tuesday.

The group described the airport, which is used for official and commercial flights, as a tool of Ethiopia's "occupation" of Somalia.

Commercial flights and planes carrying goods and supplies, including medicines, have been unable to land, our correspondent reports.

But he says flights carrying khat, a mild stimulant popular in Somalia, have continued to arrive at an airstrip outside the capital.

Meanwhile, Mohamed Sheikh Ali, head of Somalia's civil aviation, said on Friday that authorities had revoked the licenses of private airlines including Daalo, Jubba, African Air and Galad that had refused to operate out of Mogadishu because of the threat.

"They accepted internet propaganda and ignored a government call of security guarantee and a request of continuation of flights," he said.

Somalia has been wracked by conflict since 1991, when former President Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted.