Suicide bombers¹ have attacked Somalia's main airport in Mogadishu, killing² soldiers and civilians³, officials say.

索马里官方称，摩加迪休主要机场遭自杀式炸弹袭击，士兵和平民遭到伤害。

The attackers used two cars - the first exploded at the airport entrance, but a number of insurgents⁴（叛乱分子） jumped out of the second car and opened fire, killing two African Union (AU) peacekeepers.

The AU said two militants⁵（激进分子） blew themselves up as they tried to reach the airport terminal.

The hard-line Islamist group al-Shabab group said it carried out the attack.

Officials and witnesses said all of the the militants involved in the attack had died, and two women who were begging outside the airport's entrance were among those killed.

The number of civilians who died is still unclear. The government confirmed three deaths, but some officials and witnesses gave a much higher death toll⁶, and some reports claimed that Somali police officers had also been killed.

'Terror, intimidation⁷'

Minister of Information Abdirahman Omar Osman said in a statement that al-Shabab had ignored pleas to allow people to celebrate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in peace.

"They have deliberately⁸（故意地，谨慎地） triggered violence across the city, killing and injuring civilians and soldiers alike," he said.

"They offer nothing but terror, intimidation（恐吓，威胁） and the defiling⁹（亵渎，弄脏） of our culture."

Airport officials told the BBC that AU forces had stopped the first vehicle as it drove towards the airport's main entrance.

The vehicle exploded, and shortly afterwards insurgents arrived in another vehicle and began shooting.

The explosion was initially¹⁰ understood to have been a car bomb, but an official from the AU's Somali mission (Amisom) later said that AU troops had destroyed the car.

"The lead car was destroyed by an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] fired by one of our soldiers, and it exploded at the main entrance," Amisom spokesman Bahoku Barigye told the AFP news agency.

Mohammed Abdi, a local shopkeeper, told Reuters news agency that he had witnessed two explosions at the airport's heavily fortified¹¹ main entrance.

"The car powerfully rammed¹² an Amisom troops' post at the airport's gate," he said.

Hotel attack

Mogadishu's airport, of huge strategic importance, is one of the few parts of the capital controlled by forces from the AU and the government.

In recent weeks, al-Shabab has stepped up the intensity¹³ of its insurgency¹⁴.

On Wednesday, 11 people were killed in clashes between al-Shabab fighters and Somali troops.

In the worst single attack, gunmen from the Islamist group stormed a hotel last month and killed at least 32 people, including four MPs.

The government had said that it expected a surge in rebel activity as Ramadan drew to a close.

Al-Shabab is fighting to overthrow¹⁵ the government and install its own radical¹⁶ interpretation¹⁷ of Islamic law.

Al-Shabab and other Islamist rebels control large parts of the country, while the government holds only small parts of Mogadishu.