A suicide car bomber and a vehicle with militant gunmen attacked the front gate to Mogadishu's seaside airport on Thursday, triggering an explosion and gunbattle that killed nine people, officials said.
The coordinated attack was the latest in a surge of assaults by Islamist insurgents, who last month declared a new, stepped-up effort to oust the country’s weak government.
Somalia’s main insurgent group, the al-Qaeda-inspired Shabaab, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Al-Shabaab
"Specially-trained fighters from the Shabaab mujahideen (holy warriors) carried out a holy attack on the Christian forces of Uganda," said a statement posted on one of the websites used by the group.
Residents said a suicide bomber rammed a car into an AU peacekeepers post outside the airport and that they heard a second explosion inside the compound shortly afterwards.
Witnesses reported a gunbattle following the blasts.
"The car powerfully rammed an AMISOM troops post at the airport’s gate," Mohammed Abdi, a local shopkeeper, told Reuters, saying plumes of black smoke rose into the air.
Police confirmed the attack.
Somalia’s interim government warned on Wednesday that it expected a surge in rebel activity as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan draws to a close.
"I have seen four bleeding AU soldiers being carried at the gate," Abdi said. "At least eight dead bodies, most of them AMISOM soldiers, were lying on the ground."
AMISOM
Uganda and Burundi have deployed about 7,000 soldiers to Mogadishu where they focus their manpower on shielding the president and guarding the seaport and airport from Islamist insurgents fighting to topple the government.
Abdi Muse, an airport worker, said terrified airline passengers and airport employees fled the site as gunfire reverberated around the airport.
Eyewitnesses said AU troops had engaged gunmen outside the airport’s gate.
Al-Shabaab, which also claimed a July 11 suicide attack that killed 76 people in Kampala, has promised to keep targeting the African Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which consists of Ugandan and Burundian troops.
"The brave fighters who carried out the attack forced one of the airport’s main entrances and killed the guards, as well as senior Christian officials and other apostate officials," the statement said.
The Shebab claims that AMISOM, the last barrier preventing the insurgents from seizing full control of Mogadishu and toppling the president, is embarked on a Christian crusade against Muslim Somalia.
More than 230 civilians have been killed in the latest bout of violence in Mogadishu, according to the United Nations refugee agency, which began on Aug. 23 when the al-Shabaab group vowed to intensify its jihad against the fragile government.
"We cannot discount the possibility of an Eid spectacular by al-Shabaab to end what has been a fruitless and desperate offensive," the Ministry of Information said on Wednesday.