Somalia presidential spokesman shot twice in capital

MOGADISHU, June 19 (Reuters) Somalia's presidential spokesman was shot twice at close range in the latest assassination attempt on government officials in the Horn of Africa nation, officials said today.

''He was shot in the neck and near the jaw,'' a security source told Reuters. ''I think the gunman was aiming for the head. He wanted to eliminate him.'' Speaking on condition of anonymity, the security source who saw Hussein Mohamed Mahamud ''Hubsired'' recuperating in a hospital run by AU peacekeepers in Mogadishu, said he was in stable condition and was to be flown to Nairobi for treatment.

Insurgents from a militant Islamist movement ousted from Mogadishu routinely attack government soldiers and their Ethiopian backers, and have increasingly used Iraq-style tactics including assassinations, suicide bombings and roadside blasts.

The assault came barely hours after two civilians died when a remote-controlled landmine detonated on a road as government vehicles passed on Monday.

The blast was near the venue of a peace conference which has already been postponed twice over insecurity. The conference is now scheduled to start on July 18.

REUTERS RKM KN1430