Nairobi, Mogadishu - A roadside bomb killed two policemen in Mogadishu just minutes after a convoy carrying Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed had driven past, reports said Wednesday.

Yusuf has been targeted several times in recent months, including by a mortar attack on his plane as he flew to Djibouti to meet with UN officials there to push for a peace deal.

Three other people were injured in the latest attack, the BBC reported.

Somalia and some opposition figures earlier this month agreed a ceasefire, but Islamic insurgents battling the transitional government have rejected the deal.

Violence has continued unabated and fighting in Mogadishu Tuesday killed at least seven people.

The BBC said the deaths came as the insurgents late Tuesday attacked government and Ethiopian troops searching for weapons in people's homes.

The Horn of Africa nation has been in a state of anarchy since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

Fighting intensified after transitional federal government troops and their Ethiopian allies wrested control of the capital Mogadishu from the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC).

The UIC brought relative order during its six months in control in 2006.

Al-Shabaab, the UIC's armed wing, has been waging a guerrilla war ever since and hundreds of thousands have fled the vicious fighting in Modagishu to live in makeshift camps. (dpa)