At least six people have been killed and many wounded in a suicide car bomb attack targeting a UN convoy close to Mogadishu's heavily-fortified international airport.
Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab rebels said one of their suicide bombers carried out the attack on Thursday.
The bomb went off near a checkpoint at the entrance to the airport complex, which also houses the base of AMISOM - the African Union force fighting Shebab rebels - as well as a number of foreign diplomatic missions and United Nations offices.
A statement from UNSOM, the UN mission in Somalia, said the bomb went off near a convoy of UN vehicles shortly after midday.
"A UN car was damaged but no UN staff were injured. Four Somali security escorts were lightly injured," UNSOM said, expressing "deep sorrow at the reported deaths and injuries of Somali bystanders".
"At least six people, most of them civilians, died in the car bomb explosion. There are many casualties, serious injuries. We are still investigating the incident, the toll could rise anytime," a Somali police official, Said Mohamed, told AFP.
An al-Shabab spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack.
"This was an operation carried out by (al-Shabab). It was a brother who took a sacrificial act to defend the people of Somalia," al-Shabab military spokesman Sheikh Abdul Aziz Abu Musab told AFP.
"The target was a UN convoy. According to our report, several invaders have been killed."
The airport is considered to be among the safest parts of Mogadishu, and is ringed by checkpoints and large numbers of armed guards.
A number of foreign diplomatic missions are based inside the huge airport complex, which has also been used to house a number of UN staff since a city-centre UN compound was attacked by the al-Shabab last year.
