Bissau, Guinea-Bissau - Renegade soldiers killed Guinea-Bissau President Joao Bernardo Vieira in his palace on Monday, hours after a bomb blast took the life of his rival, the fragile West African nation's armed forces chief.

Guinea-Bissau President Joao Bernardo Vieira was assassinated. (Photo: Getty Images)

    The military said in a statement broadcast on state radio that no coup was in progress.

    The armed forces statement said the military would respect the constitutional order, in which the head of the parliament succeeds the president in the event of his death.

    The statement attributed Vieira's assassination to an "isolated" group of unidentified soldiers and said the military was now hunting them down.

    Luis Sanca, security adviser to Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Jr., confirmed the president's death but gave no details.

    A bomb blast Sunday night killed armed forces chief of staff Gen. Batiste Tagme na Waie at his headquarters in Bissau, according to a state radio report.

    The two men were considered staunch political rivals.

    Guinea-Bissau has suffered multiple coups and attempted coups since 1980, when Vieira himself first took power in one. The United Nations says the impoverished nation on the Atlantic coast of Africa has become a key transit point for cocaine smuggled from Latin America to Europe.

    Just hours after Waie's death late Sunday, volleys of automatic gunfire were heard for at least two hours before dawn in Bissau and residents said soldiers had converged on Vieira's palace.

    The Portuguese news agency LUSA reported that troops attacked with rockets and rifles. The president's press chief, Barnabe Gomes, escaped from the house after being struck by a bullet in his right shoulder, LUSA said.

    It was the second attack on Vieira in recent months. In November, Vieira's residence was attacked by renegade soldiers with automatic weapons. At least one guard was killed in the failed coup attempt that was repulsed by loyalist security forces.

    Waie also survived an apparent assassination attempt when unidentified attackers opened fire on his car in January.

    It was not immediately clear what caused the blast that killed Waie. Defense Minister Artur Silva and other top officials contacted by The Associated Press declined to comment.

    On Sunday in Bissau, troops closed roads around the armed forces building and prevented reporters from approaching. The British Broadcasting Corp. reported that the blast had destroyed part of the building.

    Soldiers also shut down the city's five private radio stations, said Zikue Swaeibi, a journalist at one of them, Radio Bombolom. State radio was on the air, but it played only traditional music and there were no news broadcasts.

    The three soldiers wounded in the blast were taken to the main public hospital. An AP reporter who visited the hospital saw that two of the soldiers were covered in blood and a third suffered severe burns.

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