MOGADISHU, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- A roadside bomb killed a senior military commander and wounded four others on Sunday in the northwestern Somalia region of Somaliland, local media reports said.

Osman Yusuf, commander of the 12th infantry division, was instantly killed and four of his bodyguards were wounded in two consecutive blasts that rocked the relatively stable Las Anod town in Sool region, Shabelle radio quoted senior elder in the region as saying.

One of the two bombs hit the two vehicles used by the commander and his bodyguards, and the sound of the blasts was heard in many areas of the town, which is under control of the breakaway republic of Somaliland and has been a disputed region between Somaliland and the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in northeast Somalia.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack but the Islamist Al-Shabaab movement, active mainly in southern and central Somalia, has threatened to target Somaliland.

Al-Shabaab, considered by the Somali government as a terrorist group with links to Al-Qaeda, controls much of the south and center of the war-wrecked east African country and has been waging deadly insurgency against the Somali government forces and the African Union peacekeepers.

Somaliland and Puntland, which have been stable compared with the rest of Somalia, experienced bomb attacks blamed on Al-Shabaab late last year with dozens of people killed and many others wounded.

The two regions have their own self-governments since the fall of the former Somali ruler Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991. Somaliland, unlike its southern neighbor Puntland seeks outright independence from Somalia, while Puntland is after greater autonomy within federal Somalia.