Abdukadir Ali Omar suffered minor injuries and spoke to the press moments after the roadside bomb explosion which struck his vehicle, killing one bodyguard and two civilians.
“I have no problem and I escaped the attack. The only problem was that one of my men was killed and another was injured,” Omar said.
“I’m not going to say who is behind the attack just now but we all know each other in the capital Mogadishu and we will take steps to enforce peace.”
The attack on the minister’s vehicle took place in the restive Bakara neighbourhood at around 9:30 am (0630 GMT), witnesses said.
Local residents who witnessed the attack said two bystanders were killed when the device was detonated against Omar’s vehicle.
“He was targeted in a roadside bomb explosion. He sustained injuries but they are not too serious. One of his bodyguards died,” a government official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Omar is a member of the Islamic Courts Union, the movement headed by the Somali president, who was elected earlier this year and has vowed to restore stability in the Horn of Africa country.
In a recent internet audio tape, Al-Qaeda supremo Osama bin Laden urged Somalia’s hardline Shebab organisation to topple Sharif and his administration.
“This Sheikh Sharif… must be fought and toppled,” bin Laden said in a message addressed to the “champions of Somalia”.
Despite being at the forefront of the opposition to Ethiopia‘s two-year military intervention in Somalia that ended earlier this year, Sharif and his movement are already perceived by jihadists as US stooges.
Sharif, a moderate Islamist cleric, has signed up to a UN-sponsored national reconciliation process and received international backing.
While the Shebab appear to have little political or popular backing, their ability to destabilise the country remains high and they have reportedly received the support of hundreds of foreign jihadists in recent months.
Somalia has had no effective central authority since the 1991 ouster of former president MohamedSiad Barre touched off a bloody cycle of clashes between rival factions.
In a further sign of the anarchy prevailing in the country, five Kenyan education ministry officials were kidnapped on Wednesday after crossing the border into the small town of Bulohawo.
A Kenyan police official said the kidnappers have demanded a ransom be paid for the release of the five officials.
“This is a dangerous group and that is why we want the negotiations to bear fruit before they decide to go with them deeper into their country. We don’t want it to take long,” police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said.
Most of southern Somalia is ruled by the Shebab and its allies. The group recently warned Kenya to refrain from interfering in Somali affairs or face attacks on its own soil.
Kenya has repeatedly expressed concern that the rise of a hardline Islamist administration in the southern port city of Kismayo and surrounding areas risked having negative repercussions on security within its borders.
