At least 11 people were killed on Monday and several others injured when a car exploded outside Somalia's parliament in Baidoa in a latest assassination attempt on President Abdullahi Yusuf's life, Somali Foreign Minister Ismail Mohammud Hurreh said.

However, Abdullahi was not hurt in the remote-controlled bomb attack, which left five of his bodyguards and six attackers dead, the minister told a news conference in Nairobi.

"Five people were killed and three wounded in president's convoys of three trucks as he was moving to his palace from parliament building," Ismail said.

"Presidential security forces and the attackers clashed and six of the group that carried out the attack were killed and two captured.

"From this, what is very clear is that there was a plan to assassinate the president carried out by an organized group. It was not only something against an individual but a plan organized to attack transitional government officials," he added.

The foreign minister said the president had just addressed lawmakers in parliament where he asked them to approve a new government to replace the previous one he dissolved due to inefficiency.

The minister said those who killed an Italian Catholic nun in northern Mogadishu on Sunday were behind Monday's attack in Baidoa, where the transitional federal government is based.
 
"The assassination attempt today in Baidoa is associated with what happened in Mogadishu yesterday (Sunday) where a Catholic nun was killed in cold blood. Whoever was behind that attack is also behind this one.

"The government was presenting its programs for the coming six months. It was a democratic process taking place and the attack was not only targeting the president but officials of the very best system we are trying to bring about," he added.

He refused to speculate as to who was behind the blasts but suggested they were probably linked to the proposed peacekeeping mission to Somalia.

"I am not accusing anybody at this stage, because I don't want to speculate at this particular moment, but there are some people who claim to fight IGAD (the Intergovernmental Authority on Development) and Somalia is part of IGAD," he said.

Analysts said the attacks came amid pleas from the transitional federal government (TFG) to the African Union (AU), to send peacekeepers to the country to protect the powerless administration.

The minister appealed to international community especially the UN to lift its arms embargo on his country to enable the UN-backed administration to gain a foothold in the lawless Horn of Africa.

"We are appealing to the international community particularly the UN to lift its arms embargo to enable our security forces to operate legally. It's as a result of today's attack that we are asking the IGAD and the AU to come to Somalia and help TFG to operate in a an environment where it can push through its programs," he said.

A standing international arms embargo on the country further challenges the deployment of peacekeepers to the troubled nation, as well as the fact that the AU cannot afford the multi-million dollar peacekeeping mission.

But Islamists with the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts have vowed to fight foreign troops if they are sent to Somalia to support Abdullahi's government.

The AU Security Council recently approved plans to send a contingent of peacekeepers to Somalia by the end of the month.

(Xinhua News Agency September 19, 2006)