Mogadishu, Sha'ban 08, 1438, May 04, 2017, SPA -- A Somali minister has been shot dead by security officials in an apparent accident near the seat of government in Mogadishu, a leading security official said Wednesday. Abas Siraji, minister of construction and public works, was killed in friendly fire between his bodyguards and those of the country's auditor general, Nur Jimale Farah, senior Somali security member Mohamed Hassan told dpa. Hassan said the minister's bodyguards had falsely identified Farah, who was travelling in a bulletproof vehicle, as a threat. The auditor general escaped unharmed. Several of Siraji's bodyguards were wounded in the incident, according to Hassan. Siraji had lived as a refugee in Kenya's Dadaab camp before returning to Somalia last year and being elected to parliament in his home country. Ministers and high-ranking officials are accompanied by armed bodyguards in Mogadishu, where Islamist al-Shabaab militants have carried out several attacks. --SPA 03:36 LOCAL TIME 00:36 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w392607