Nairobi/Mogadishu  - Somalia's interior minister was wounded and one of his entourage killed in a roadside bomb attack in the capital Mogadishu Thursday.

Sheikh Abdulkadir Ali Omar, who led the Islamic opposition before he joined the government this year, was leaving the Bakara market area when the bomb went off.

Radio Shabelle reported Sheikh Abdulkadir as saying that the attackers were former allies who did not support the new government led by his close ally President Sheikh Sharif Sheik Ahmed.

"We know each other and we all live in Mogadishu, but I do not want to say who it is," he told a press conference in Mogadishu.

Many former militants, who were part of an Islamist regime kicked out of power by an invading Ethiopian army in late 2006, have joined the new government.

However, militant group al-Shabaab - which has fought a bloody insurgency since early 2007 - has vowed to keep fighting despite the withdrawal of Ethiopia and the appointment of its former ally to power.

Al-Shabaab control large areas of Somalia, although analysts say its position has been weakened by the appointment of Sheikh Sharif, who says he will introduce Islamic law.

Somalia has been embroiled in chaos since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. (dpa)