Mogadishu, (InsideSomalia.org) Union of Islamic Courts has claimed responsibility for six mortars that hit the Mogadishu seaport last night.

Abdirahim Ali Mudey, former Information Secretary of the ousted UIC said they targeted the seaport because a ship docked there brought weapons and other materials for the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

In exclusive interview with Radio Simba in Mogadishu he dismissed comments by an AMISOM spokesman, who told radio Simba that the mortars were "launched from Bakara market."

"That claim is untrue…we launched the attack at a location very close to the port," Mudey said.

None of the AU peacekeepers were wounded in the attack, but five Somalis suffered injuries during the blasts, according to the AMISOM spokesman.

Mudey said AMISOM peacekeepers are "not different" from Ethiopian troops because both groups are "forcefully controlling the Somali people."

The UIC member ruled out the possibility of dialogue between Somali government and the opposition, " We can talk only when Ethiopian troops withdrawn" said Sheikh Abdirahim Mudey

Somali fighters linked to the ousted Islamic Courts movement have spearheaded a bloody insurgency since January 2007 when Somali-Ethiopian troops captured Mogadishu.

More than 6,000 people have been killed since and half of Mogadishu's population displaced by the violence, according to the United Nations and human rights groups.

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