SUKHUMI, Georgia (AP) – Gunmen attacked a convoy carrying the prime minister of the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia on Friday, wounding a driver, according to the vice premier of the Muslim enclave on the Black Sea.

It was the second assassination attempt in a month on Alexander Ankvab. His two-car convoy was traveling in the village of Anvab, six miles from the capital Sukhumi, when the assailants raked the cars with automatic weapons fire, said Vice Prime Minister Leonid Lakerbaya.

Guards returned fire and the cars sped away, but not before the driver of the first car was wounded. His condition was not immediately known, Lakerbaya said.

Lakerbaya and Ankvab, who were in the second car, were unharmed.

“Someone doesn’t want the new authorities in Abkhazia to work with stability, so that the republic will be stable. This is all politics,” newly elected President Sergei Bagapsh said, according to the Interfax news agency. “But we are not scared and the new attempt on Ankvab will not influence our activity. We are even more united.”

On March 1, gunmen fired on Ankvab’s car as he traveled to the prime minister’s residence in a resort north of Sukhumi. Lakerbaya was also in that convoy.

The lush, Black Sea coastal region has run its own affairs since breaking away from Georgia in 1993 following a vicious civil war. It has cultivated close ties with Russia, but no government recognizes Abkhazia as independent. Many of its residents – including Bagapsh – have Russian citizenship, and Georgian authorities accuse Russia of supporting its separatist leadership.

AP-ES-04-01-05 1506EST