Update

MOGADISHU - A suicide squad of Al Qaeda-linked militants killed at least five people as they tried to blast their way into Mogadishu airport on Thursday, moments after top foreign envoys met the Somali president.

The brazen attack was claimed by the Shebab movement and capped a Ramadan insurgent offensive against the Western-backed government that has left hundreds dead.

Two vehicles carrying suicide bombers armed with rifles sped towards the main entrance of the airport compound, witnesses and security officials told an AFP reporter on the scene.

Soldiers from the African Union AMISOM mission fired a rocket that destroyed the first car but five militants leapt out of the second and sprayed gunfire in all directions before blowing themselves up.

"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 AFP.

But several men "jumped out of one of the cars and started shooting everybody", he said, adding that two of the attackers blew up their suicide vests 200 metres (yards) from the main terminal building.

Barigye said two AMISOM soldiers were killed and three wounded, while the bodies of five attackers were accounted for. He also said that at least one civilian working for the commercial airline African Express was killed.

An AFP reporter saw the bodies of at least two other civilians, two women, at the site of the wreckage of the first car. He said the scene was one of devastation following the attack, with severed limbs, blood and debris from the exploded car strewn on the ground.

The attack came as representatives of the African Union and United Nations were at the airport after a meeting with Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the president of the embattled Western-backed Somali government (TFG).

"President Sharif informed the delegation that the TFG is committed to resisting the destabilisation campaigns of Shebab extremists," said a statement from the presidency, without mentioning the attack.

The envoys were in Mogadishu at the time of the attack and later condemned the attack in a joint statement as "heinous act of terrorism".

The main insurgent movement Shebab, which also claimed responsibility for July 11 suicide attacks that killed 76 people in Kampala, praised its fighters for the airport attack in a brief Internet post.

"Specially-trained fighters from the Shebab mujahideen (holy warriors) carried out a holy attack on the Christian forces of Uganda," 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.

AMISOM is in the process of boosting its contingent, which currently stands at 7,200 troops, in a bid to launch a more robust operation aimed at flushing insurgents out of the capital.

The insurgents have been battling AMISOM forces and troops from the Western-backed Somali government for control of Mogadishu, in daily clashes the United Nations said have left more than 230 civilians dead in two weeks.

But the Shebab has also resorted to more spectacular attacks on other targets, most recently on August 24 when two fighters stormed a Mogadishu hotel and went on a shooting rampage before blowing themselves up, killing at least 30 people, including six members of parliament.

The Somali government praised AMISOM and lashed out at the Shebab for launching such attacks during Ramadan.

"They have deliberately triggered violence across the city, killing and injuring civilians and soldiers alike. They offer nothing but terror, intimidation and the defiling of our culture," a statement said.