Two powerful explosions rocked a southern Russian republic Thursday afternoon, injuring the prime minister of the republic and killing one of his guards.

Ibragim Malsagov, the prime minister of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, was wounded in the leg in an assassination attempt in Nazran, the main city of the republic, at 2:25 PM Moscow time (10:25 GMT), a regional interior ministry official was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

Malsagov was rushed to hospital and doctors confirmed that his life was not in danger.

However, one of his guards was killed and at least two others were injured in the blasts.

Officials said attackers detonated two bombs as Malsagov's motorcade passed through central Nazran, with the first blast meant to divert attention.

The president of the republic, Murat Zyazikov, said he believed the attack was aimed at destabilizing the republic and the entire North Caucasus region but it would end up in vain.

"Some forces cannot reconcile themselves with their failure to escalate the conflict and they oppose the course of creating peace and security," Zyazikov told Interfax. "They want chaos, but all their efforts are doomed to fail."

Zyazikov said he saw a direct link between the assassination attempt on Malsagov and the attempt on his own life last spring.

A car steered by a suicide bomber slammed into Zyazikov's motorcade in April 2004. Zyazikov was slightly injured.

Ingushetia's Security Council Secretary Bashir Aushev said the situation in the republic was "quiet" following the assassination attempt on Malsagov.

The attack was the second one in the region in a week and came a week before the first anniversary of the Beslan school siege in neighboring North Ossetia.

More than 330 people, 172 of them young school children, were killed in the siege, which ended after government forces stormed the school seized by armed militants last September.

Ingushetia, one of the poorest Russian regions, has been suffering from bomb attacks and kidnappings targeted at local officials, servicemen and civilians. Violence in neighboring Chechnya, where government forces are fighting separatist rebels, also spilled over into the region.

(Xinhua News Agency August 26, 2005)