BAIDOA (Somalia), Sept 18: At least seven people were killed on Monday when two powerful blasts rocked Somalia’s parliament building in a suspected attempt to assassinate the country’s interim president.

President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was unhurt by the explosions, at least one of which was from a car bomb that officials said were intended to kill the president and destabilise the already weak government.

“This was an attack aimed at assassinating the president to destabilise the government,” Somali Foreign Minister Ismail Mohamed Hurre said. “The attackers knew the president was addressing the parliament.”

Officials and witnesses said the bombs detonated while Yusuf was driving away from the parliament building — a converted warehouse — in a convoy, shortly after he delivered a speech.

Medical sources in Baidoa, the temporary seat of the Somali transitional government about 250km northwest of Mogadishu, said seven people had been confirmed dead and several seriously injured.

Among those killed was Yusuf’s younger brother, a senior security official in the president’s office told AFP.

The first explosion from a car bomb sent a huge ball of flame into the sky and destroyed numerous vehicles parked in front of the parliament building, a converted warehouse, witnesses said.

Witnesses said the initial blast occurred in a Toyota saloon car parked in front of the parliament building and was followed several minutes later by a second one.

“There were two explosions, the second occurred after 15 minutes,” government security officer Abdi Ali Jele government told AFP.

Suleiman Olad Robleh, a member of parliament, said no one inside the building had been injured.

“Neither the president nor any lawmakers were wounded,” he told AFP by phone from inside the legislature. “The president has been taken by his bodyguards from the parliament to the presidential palace.

“We are safe inside the hall, but there are some casualties out there,” Robleh said.

Yusuf was expected on Monday to ask parliament to approve a new cabinet to shore up the largely powerless government that has been seriously challenged by the rise of an Islamist movement.

The Islamists pose an increasingly strong threat to the limited authority of the government, the latest of more than a dozen international attempts to restore stability to the lawless country.

—AFP