Somali army commander, Gen. Abdullahi Ali Omar, escaped an assassination attempt on Monday in the capital of Mogadishu, presidential spokesman Hussein Mohamed Mahmoud said.

"Gen. Abdullahi Ali Omar, the Somali army commander, escaped unharmed an assassination attempt," he told Xinhua.

The spokesman said that two of the commander's bodyguards were slightly wounded in the explosion. "We have apprehended two suspects for the attack," he said. "The government would put in place measures to strengthen the security of its officials."

This is not the first time an assassination attempt targeted at officials of the transitional government.

Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf also survived an assassination attempt blamed on Islamists last year. Yusuf's younger brother was killed in the attack in Baidoa.

In early March, the vehicle of Yusuf Ibrahim Shaweeye, deputy mayor of Mogadishu, was blow up by a bomb allegedly hidden inside his vehicle. He sustained injuries and was flown abroad for treatment.The government blamed the action on remnants of the Islamists as well.

The assassination attempt came one day after a truce halted four days of conflict between Ethiopian and Somali government troops and the Hawiye clan fighters who say they are opposed to the government's attempt to disarm their clan militias.

Mogadishu residents took advantage of Monday's calm to bury bodies of civilians, soldiers and fighters killed in the four days of shelling and exchange of gunfire. Thousands of people have fled the capital.

The Somali government has pledged to pacify the situation in time for a national reconciliation congress to be held in Mogadishu on April 16.

Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991 when warlords overthrew former ruler Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another, throwing the country into anarchy.

Source: Xinhua