MOGADISHU, Jan 30 (Reuters) - A series of explosions rocked northern Mogadishu late on Tuesday in an area where Ethiopian troops are based, security sources and residents said.

"There have been some explosions," said a government security source. "Nobody knows who is behind the attack but I suspect the extremists have hit at the Ethiopians."

There was no immediate information on casualties after the blasts, which occurred on a day when a Somali Islamist Web site posted a message purporting to be from a new insurgency group vowing to fight a possible African Union peacekeeping force.

"The explosion sounded like a rocket-propelled grenade. I also heard sounds of AK-47 rifles," said Abdi Jama, a Mogadishu resident at a livestock market near the area of the attack.

Gunmen have launched attacks in the past few days in the latest guerrilla-style ambushes on the government and Ethiopian troops who drove Islamists from the Somali capital over the New Year after their six-month rule of most of south Somalia.

The latest attack took place near Darmoley, where attackers fired mortar bombs at an Ethiopian camp over the weekend.

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