Somali interior minister wounded by roadside bomb

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By MOHAMED SHEIKH NOR ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOGADISHU, SOMALIA (AP) - Somalia's new interior minister was wounded by a roadside bomb Thursday morning in an attack that killed his bodyguard and wounded two others. The moderate Islamist pledged to seek reconciliation with his attackers, widely believed to be hardline fighters.

No group claimed responsibility, but the attack was likely the work of former allies of Minister Sheik Abdulkadir Ali Omar, who joined the new government along with other relatively moderate Islamists in recent months.

The new administration faces severe difficulties in trying to persuade other Islamist groups to join the peace process instead of seeking to destroy the country's fifteenth government in the last 18 years.

Omar declined to name the group responsible for the bomb that also wounded another bodyguard and a bystander.

"We know those behind the attack," he told journalists in Mogadishu, a white bandage on his leg. "We will do all we can to resolve the matter. We will still pursue the peace process and we'll manage to overcome the enemies of the people."

Omar was wounded as he left his office in Mogadishu's largest open-air market, Bakara, which has long been known as a stronghold for Islamist al-Shabab fighters. The powerful group strongly opposes the new Somali unity government and has also attacked U.N. peacekeepers. The U.S. State Department says its leaders have links to al-Qaida.

The Bakara area is now controlled by former militants, like Omar himself, who used to oppose the Somali government. Many have since joined the government after a peace deal was signed last year, followed by the resignation of the old president. The new president, former Islamist fighter Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, was elected by parliament in January.

Omar said he was confident Ahmed would succeed in winning over his old allies.

"We will pursue them through negotiations," Omar said. "We don't want to disclose our tactics ... We have been fighting a long time, we know each other."

Before his appointment, Omar led an Islamist militia that fought alongside al-Shabab against Ethiopian troops who occupied Somalia in support of the shaky U.N.-backed government. The Ethiopians withdrew this January under the terms of the peace deal.

Al-Shabab controls large chunks of southern Somalia where it imposes a harsh brand of Islam. But the militia's fight against the government was weakened when parliament appointed Ahmed as president earlier this year.

January's withdrawal of Ethiopian troops allied to the government, although long a demand of al-Shabab, also removed one of its most powerful recruiting tools. It has since refocused its calls for a nationalist and religious war on African Union peacekeepers.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since clan-based militias overthrew a socialist dictator in 1991 and then turned on each other.