11 killed in Somali president assassination attempt

Somalia’s president narrowly escaped an assassination attempt today when a car bomb exploded outside the parliament building in the city of Baidoa, but the blast and a subsequent gunbattle left 11 people dead, officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which killed the president’s brother but it will certainly aggravate tensions between the virtually powerless government and an Islamic militia that has seized control of much of southern Somalia.