Foreign militants killed preparing bombs in Somalia

MOGADISHU Aug 21 (Reuters) - Eleven insurgent militiamen were killed by their own bombs when they went off prematurely in Somalia's capital, the government said on Saturday.

The mostly foreign militiamen died in two separate incidents, 10 while preparing a car bomb and another as he planted a roadside bomb, the information ministry said.

Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab and another Islamist militia have been fighting Somalia's Western-backed government since the start of 2007, launching frequent attacks on its bases in the capital.

"They are three Pakistanis, two Indians, one Afghani, one Algerian, and two Somalis, (and) a leader who was in charge of praying for suicide bombers before they were dispatched," the ministry said in a statement.

Police arrested two men who had been guarding the militant digging a hole at a Mogadishu bridge for the roadside bomb and confiscated a bag with materials for making explosives.

The rebels, who control much of the capital in a country deprived of an effective central government for nearly two decades, have adopted Taliban-like governance in the Horn of Africa nation that has been unstable since 1991.

More than 21,000 Somalis have been killed in fighting since the start of the insurgency, 1.5 million have been uprooted from their homes and nearly half a million are sheltering in other countries in the region. (Reporting by Ibrahim Mohamed; editing by Helen Nyambura and Charles Dick)