(Adds outbreaks of violence)

By Guled Mohamed

MOGADISHU, June 24 (Reuters) - Gunmen tried to kill a Somali lawmaker on Saturday night in the latest assassination attempt on a government official in the violent Horn of Africa country.

Member of parliament Hussein Osman was in his house west of Mogadishu when gunmen opened fire. He told local media on Sunday he did not know who the assailants were.

"This was a well-planned plot to eliminate me," he was quoted as saying.

Witnesses said Osman's security guards repulsed the gunmen after a brief but heavy exchange of fire. No one was hurt.

Government officials have increasingly been targeted in attacks the interim administration blames on fighters loyal to an Islamist movement, which briefly controlled much of southern Somalia before being ousted by allied Somali-Ethiopian forces.

Somalia's presidential spokesman was shot twice at close range this week and earlier this month Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said al Qaeda was behind a suicide bombing that killed seven people outside his home in Mogadishu.

Fears of insecurity in the coastal capital have largely confined Somalia's parliament to the south-central town of Baidoa since its creation in 2004.

In a separate incident, four children were injured when a hand grenade exploded close to Mogadishu's sprawling Bakara market on Sunday, witnesses said.

"A boy had shrapnel lodged in his mouth," said Mohamed Abdi. "It's chaos. People are running in all directions. I can also hear gunshots but I don't know if anyone was killed."

Somali authorities imposed a curfew on Mogadishu from last Friday to try to stem the violence, but sporadic gunfire and explosions can still be heard in the night.

The south-central Hiraan region was also hit with violence, residents said, when Ethiopian troops fired at civilians after a roadside bomb struck one of their trucks, wounding eight.

"The village is now tense as Ethiopian troops are searching houses," resident Dahir Mohamed said by telephone.

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