U.N. envoy makes surprise Somalia visit

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A top U.N. envoy made an unannounced trip Tuesday to Somalia's ravaged capital, where a 12-year-old girl and a woman were killed in a land mine explosion apparently targeting a government convoy.

Francois Lonseny Fall, the U.N. secretary-general's special representative to Somalia, addressed the ongoing National Reconciliation Conference, aimed at ending Somalia's 16 years of anarchy and violence.

"Reconciliation and peaceful discussions are the only things you do to can solve your protracted problems," Fall told the conference, which had been delayed several times due to violence and infighting, and has been the target of insurgent attacks since it opened July 18.

Mogadishu seems increasingly seized by the Iraq-style insurgency that Islamic militants have vowed to wage since being driven from the capital in December by Ethiopian troops backing the Somali government. Civilians have often been caught in the crossfire, and hundreds of thousands have fled to squalid tent camps outside the capital.

Witnesses said Tuesday's land mine attack was apparently meant to hit a government convoy. Two soldiers were wounded.

"A young girl was killed by shrapnel as she was standing at the window of their house and a woman was also killed in the explosion. I saw both of them," said Mohamed Dilahow, a neighbor.

Somalia has seen little but anarchy since warlord overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, then turned on each other. A U.N.-backed transitional government formed in 2004 has struggled to assert any real control.

The peace conference is meant to tackle issues that have stoked the conflict, such as clan arguments, looted property, a new constitution and general elections by 2009. It was a key requirement of the transitional charter that led to the government's 2004 formation.

Some people with ties to the ousted Islamic movement have attended, but the group's leadership has denounced the conference