MOGADISHU, June 4, 2007 (AFP) - Ethiopian-Somali forces on Monday killed three civilians and wounded five others after a failed hand grenade attack on their convoy in the increasingly volatile Somali capital, witnesses said.

It was the second failed grenade attack of the day on Ethiopian-Somali troops in the northern district of Huriwa, and came a day after Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi escaped a deadly suicide car bomb attack on his Mogadishu compound.

"Immediately after the grenade was thrown at the Ethiopian-Somali convoy, they opened heavy fire in the direction it came from," witness Ahmed Ismail told AFP.

It was unclear who carried out the attack but many civilians had been standing at a nearby bus stop and small roadside market, he said.

"The three died immediately after the troops opened fire and their bodies have been collected by local elders," said witness Abdullahi Daud.

"Some other people might have been hurt further away because stray bullets were flying everywhere."

Ethiopian and Somali forces were not immediately available for comment.

Government and United Nations officials, African Union peacekeeping troops and Ethiopian soldiers have been targeted in a growing number of Iraq-style homemade bomb and suicide attacks, mainly in the seaside capital.

Gedi, the prime minister, escaped a suicide car bomb attack on his Mogadishu compound Sunday that killed six of his security guards.

The attack followed a deadly weekend assault in northeastern Somalia by security forces and a US warship against Islamic extremists with suspected links to Al-Qaeda.

Ethiopian troops helped Somali forces drive out an Islamist movement at the start of the year and in March and April fought heavy battles with Islamist sympathisers and clan fighters on the streets of Mogadishu.

The Horn of Africa nation plunged into lawlessness with the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and more than a dozen attempts to restore central authority have since failed.

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