Suicide car bomber strikes near Somali PM's house

MOGADISHU, June 3 (Reuters) A suicide bomber in a car rigged with explosives blew himself up near the home of Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi in the capital Mogadishu today, injuring several people, witnesses said.

''A security officer stopped the vehicle and it detonated,'' said one witness who gave his name as Ismail. ''I saw so many wounded people. I can't tell if anyone was killed.'' It was not immediately clear if Gedi was at his home at the time.

Ismail was among a number of civilians who sought safety inside the prime minister's compound after the blast.

''The guards are not letting anyone out,'' he told Reuters by telephone. ''An Islamic school was badly damaged in the explosion. No one knows what happened to the children inside.'' Gedi's interim administration is struggling to impose its authority on the anarchic Horn of Africa nation.

Near daily attacks on government troops and their Ethiopian military allies are blamed on remnants of a defeated Islamist movement who have vowed to wage an ''Iraq-style'' insurgency.

On Friday, CNN said US air strikes targeted an al Qaeda suspect in northern Somalia, and today a regional official said six Islamist fighters, including an American and a Briton, had been killed in gun battles and the US attack.

REUTERS ABM RK2145