I couldn't see them but, from the sounds, they were evidently trying to drive up the slope straight at me. I found that a couple of them manned an armed jeep and came directly for me. After the first shot, the opposition will start running about in crouched positions. You should be able to spot someone standing about. Now take out your sniper rifle and scan the villiage. The advantage of this view point is that it doesn't attract the mortar attack and the slope below you is too steep for vehicles. Your view is partially obscured by a large tree. You should eventually end up on a high, flat shelf of rock overlooking the villiage from the southeast. Keep as high up against the rock wall as you can. Head out westwards on foot from the safe house and work your way around the lump of high ground north of the safe house towards the village. The way I have found to tackle it is to start from the safe house that is just southeast of the villiage, north of a river fork. If you arrive in an armed jeep, you cannot stop to man the machine gun because the mortar will get you! If you just try and bull your way through you end up with at least 2 armed jeeps and about 6 men on foot shooting at you and you don't stand a chance! The problem with this mission is that the villiage has loads of troops (about 12 I think) and, if you take tha main approach road that comes to the villiage from the north-east, you come under mortar fire as you get near the villiage. The kiln is in a sort of cave above the main villiage. This is one of the most spectacular settlements in the whole game and consists of large numbers of mud brick huts extending up a very steep slope.

One of the missions in Act 2 is to destroy the kiln at the Dogon Cliff Village.

Far cry 2 mortar