Nairobi, Dec 3 (IANS/EFE): At least six people were killed Wednesday in a suicide car bomb blast near the airport in Somalia's capital Mogadishu when a UN convoy was passing by, police sources told Efe news agency.

It was not immediately clear if the attack targeted the UN and Somali government convoy which was on its way to the airport, or if any passengers in those vehicles were among the dead.

The troops of the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) cordoned off and took control of the area.

No group has yet claimed responsibility, but all indications are that the attack was carried out by the Al Shabaab Islamist radical group.

In recent months Mogadishu has witnessed a wave of car bombings and shootouts that targeted senior politicians and government officials, and for which the Al Shabaab group has taken responsibility.

Al Shabaab, trying to establish a radical Islamic state in Somalia, was in March 2008 put in the list of terrorist organisations by the US.

Somalia has been witnessing a state of war and chaos since 1991 when dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted, which left the country without an effective government and in the hands of radical Islamist militias, warlords and gangs of armed criminals.