"He was shot in the neck and near the jaw," a security source speaking on condition of anonymity told Reuters. "I think the gunman was aiming for the head. He wanted to eliminate him."
The security source, who saw Hussein Mohamed Mahamud "Hubsired" recuperating in a hospital run by African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu, said he was in stable condition and was to be flown to Nairobi for treatment.
The gunman behind the shooting on Monday, a day which saw two other attacks against government targets, was unknown.
But 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.In a move the government said is aimed at boosting a July 15 reconciliation conference, Somalia's cabinet this week approved a plan to release low-level Islamist fighters captured during the war to oust them from power in December and January.
The amnesty will not apply to those the government said have links to al Qaeda or who committed serious crimes, government spokesman Abdi Haji Gobdon said.
"We will release those who are mere fighters," Gobdon said. "This decision is in line with the government efforts to boost the success of the reconciliation conference."
Gobdon declined to say how many fighters would be released.
The Islamist movement during its brief reign had roughly 3,000 fighters, but security experts say the ranks swelled with draftees -- many of whom were forced into uniform -- as the war began in earnest in the last days of December.
Many diplomats say the reconciliation conference, twice delayed over security concerns, is the best chance for the government to boost its legitimacy and end the violence.
Suspected insurgents detonated a landmine that killed two people in an attempt to hit passing government vehicles, and one policemen was killed when attackers struck the Horuwa police station in northern Mogadishu, a pro-Islamist area.
"A serious gunbattle erupted. We returned fire and after several minutes, we overpowered them and they ran away. One policeman was killed by the rocket they fired at us," the station's chief officer, Mohamed Osman, told Reuters.
He said he did not know if any of the 15 attackers was wounded or killed.
The interim government is the 14th attempt at imposing a government on Somalia since warlords ousted the last president, dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, in 1991.
(Additional reporting by Ibrahim Mohamed)
