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MOGADISHU, Somalia - Dozens of suspected Islamic insurgents ambushed a military convoy transporting bodyguards for the interior and finance ministers, killing four soldiers.

Also on Saturday, a gunfight between Islamic militias and Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu left two civilians dead.

The two attacks capped a week of some of the worst violence in Somalia in recent months. At least 38 people have died in three days of attacks by suspected Islamic insurgents who vowed to avenge the killing of a key commander last week.

In the convoy attack Saturday, insurgents hid along the roadside near Wanla-weyn, 110 kilometres southwest of the capital and ambushed a convoy, senior police officer Ali Aden Ali said.

Four soldiers were killed, and two were wounded. The finance minister was out of the country, but it wasn't clear whether the interior minister was in the convoy.

A spokesman for the al-Shabab militia, Sheik Muqtar Robow, claimed his group carried out the attack, adding that the insurgents took two vehicles and some arms from the soldiers.

In the capital, a battle between Ethiopian soldiers and insurgents left two civilians dead.

Witness Farah Omar Ishaq said the fighting began when insurgents surrounded an Ethiopian military tanker parked on a road in southern Mogadishu.

The standoff "turned into heavy fighting as more Ethiopian forces came to the aid of their colleagues," firing mortars that killed two people, he said.

Government officials couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Ethiopian troops have been in the country since 2006 to help Somalia's shaky transitional government oust Islamic insurgents.

The insurgents had vowed to avenge the death of Hashi Aden Ayro, the al-Shabab commander local elders say was killed last week when U.S. fighter jets bombed his home.

The al-Shabab commander had been leading the Islamic drive in Somalia and allegedly was an al-Qaida leader in the Horn of Africa country.

On Friday, insurgents attacked a Somali military base near the presidential palace. The ensuing gunbattle left at least six people dead and 13 wounded.

On Thursday, Islamist fighters briefly seized the police headquarters in Mogadishu in an attack that left 11 dead, including two officers and five insurgents, according to police officer Dalmar Mohamed Hassan.

He said three insurgents were captured.

Witnesses said two government soldiers and two civilians also were killed in the fighting.

About 21 people, the majority of them civilians, were killed Wednesday in four separate incidents in southern and central Somalia.