20091205

CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guinea's capital was on edge on Saturday following a botched assassination attempt on the head of the ruling junta, with residents bracing for further violence between out-of-control army factions.

Pickup trucks carrying heavily armed soldiers moved through the quiet streets of the normally bustling city searching for suspects in the attack, with shops open only part-time and most residents staying indoors.

"The situation is very dangerous. If the president dies of his injuries, that could open the path to violent conflict in this country. This could even mean ethnic clashes," said Kemoko Kaba, a real estate broker in Conakry.

Guinea's mineral wealth has attracted billions of dollars in investments from international miners Rio Tinto, Anglo Gold Ashanti, and RUSAL -- none of which have reported any impact to operations from the instability.

Renegade soldiers on Thursday shot and wounded junta leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara in a sign of divisions in the army since he took power in a December 2008 coup after the death of strongman leader Lansana Conte.

Camara was evacuated for medical treatment in Morocco and could require surgery due to multiple gunshot wounds, Burkina Faso President Blaise Campaore, whose presidential plane was used to transport Camara, said on Friday.

There was no public update on his health on Saturday.

Rising instability in the West African nation, the world's top supplier of aluminium ore bauxite that has moved from crisis to crisis in recent years, threatens to spill over into a region scarred by a rash of civil wars.