(Adds palace hit) MOGADISHU, Jan 19 (Reuters) - At least two mortars slammed into Somalia's presidential palace on Friday night as explosions and gunfire rocked Mogadishu in the latest outbreak of violence in chaotic Somalia, witnesses and officials said. "I can confirm two mortars have hit Villa Somalia," a senior government source told Reuters, of the building where President Abdullahi Yusuf stays. "We do not have word yet if there were casualties or not." More than a dozen explosions boomed across Mogadishu and gunfire rattled out to break a lull in the violence of several days in the coastal capital of the Horn of Africa nation. "I have heard more than a dozen explosions ... now there is gunfire," said Reuters reporter Sahal Abdulle. Ethiopian troops, who helped the Somali interim government drive Islamists out of Mogadishu over the New Year, have in past days been the target of attacks from unknown groups. Suspicion has fallen on remnants of the defeated Islamists, who vowed to launch guerrilla strikes against the Ethiopians whom they regard as illegitimate occupiers of Somalia. Two former Islamists told Reuters earlier on Friday they had infiltrated Mogadishu again and planned to attack Villa Somalia and other targets. Yusuf came to Mogadishu just days ago to take up residence in the already bullet- and mortar-scarred building. It was not known if the 72-year-old former soldier was in the compound during Friday's attack. Addis Ababa wants to pull its troops out of neighbouring Somalia within days. But analysts say that risks leaving a power vacuum that could see the Horn of Africa nation slide back into anarchy. The African Union is trying to muster a peacekeeping force.
