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Somali President Moved to Palace Early


Somalia's newly elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (C) and Kenya's Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Ongeri (2nd R) leave the Jazeera hotel after a bomb blast outside the venue in Mogadishu, September 12, 2012.
Somalia's newly elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (C) and Kenya's Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Ongeri (2nd R) leave the Jazeera hotel after a bomb blast outside the venue in Mogadishu, September 12, 2012.
Somalia's new president has been moved to the presidential palace, one day after militants tried to bomb the hotel where he was staying.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was not due to move into the palace, known as Villa Somalia, until an official transfer of power ceremony on Sunday.

But the president moved in early, after the unsuccessful attempt on his life Wednesday at a Mogadishu hotel.

The African Union force in Somalia says its troops shot three al-Shabab suicide bombers along the perimeter of the hotel compound. Two of the attackers' explosives went off, and all three were killed, along with at least one AU soldier.

Mohamud was given a tour of the heavily-fortified palace Thursday by his predecessor Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who is still living at the compound.

VOA footage of hotel attack



Ahmed lost the presidential election to Mohamud on Monday in Somalia's parliament. The election was the last major step in a plan to create a new government in Somalia, which has gone more than 20 years without an effective central authority.
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