MOGADISHU, Somalia, March 25, 2007 (AP) - Ethiopian troops opened fire after a major explosion occurred at an Ethiopian army camp on the outskirts of the Somali capital Monday, and one person was killed, a witness said.

It was not clear what had caused the explosion or who the troops may have been firing at, and officials were not immediately available for comment.

The explosion was heard in parts of Mogadishu and Mohamed Nur Warsame, a minibus driver, told The Associated Press by telephone that he saw the Ethiopian troops firing indiscriminately as he drove in the area.

The incident occurred hours after a spokesman for elders of Mogadishu's dominant clan said they remained committed to a truce negotiated with Ethiopian military officials here backing the government, and will continue talks to broker a lasting peace.

The elders' reaffirmation was made as an al-Qaida militant, in a video posted Sunday on the Internet, called on militants in Somalia to fight Jihad, or holy war, against government troops.

Mogadishu 's truce had held since it took effect Friday. On Saturday, talks between Ethiopian military officials and elders of the Hawiye clan to thrash out details of the truce reached an impasse, threatening the deal.

"We agreed ... to maintain the cease-fire and continue talks toward peace and stability," said Ahmed Diriye, the Hawiye clan spokesman.

In a statement released late Sunday, the elders also called on the immediate withdrawal of Ethiopian troops and asked that the Somali government troops leave Mogadishu for northern Somalia until a national army is formed.

Some hold that the Somali government troops are dominated by members of President Abdillahi Yusuf's Darod clan, the main clan in the northeastern semiautonomous region of Puntland that Yusuf led before becoming president of Somalia.

The elders did not threaten any action if their demands were not met and seemed to be willing to negotiate on the points. On Saturday, the elders had said that they wanted first to discuss political issues with Yusuf before any further disarmament of Mogadishu residents takes place.

The transitional government welcomed the elders commitment to the truce and will address complaints they have raised, said Interior Minister Mohamed Mohamud Guled.

"They are the traditional leaders and we are the political leaders of the country. We make a perfect match," Guled said.

After being ousted from Mogadishu in December, remnants of the Council of Islamic Courts promised to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla war, and mortar attacks had pounded the capital nearly daily until Friday.

On Thursday, Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle said the Somali government had gathered intelligence that Aden Hashi Ayro, a top leader of the ousted Islamic courts, had been directing the insurgency in Mogadishu and was recently named the head of the al-Qaida cell in Somalia.

In the second video released this week by Abu Yahia al-Libi, who broke out of the U.S. prison at Bagram Air Base north of the Afghan capital, Kabul, in 2005, the al-Qaida militant urged Somali militants to, "stick to the gang wars."

"Slam them with one raid after another, set ambushes against them, and shake their soil with land mines and shake their bases with suicide attacks and car bombs," he said. "The goal of your fight and the purpose of your Jihad is the expulsion of the occupier and his helpers and the establishment of an Islamic state in the land of Somalia."

When Somali government soldiers went on the offensive last week, officials said they focused on parts of the capital controlled by a clan that is a major supporter of more radical elements of the Council of Islamic Courts. That clan is the Habr Gedir, a branch of the larger Hawiye clan.

The Council of Islamic Courts controlled the capital and much of southern Somalia for six months before Somali government troops, backed by Ethiopian forces, ousted them in December.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991. The current administration has failed to assert control throughout the country, and the African Union deployed the small force of Ugandans to defend it.

Associated Press writer Omar Sinan in Cairo, Egypt contributed to this report.

Source: AP