MOGADISHU, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- A taxi driver was killed and a passenger injured when a bomb suspected to have been planted in the car exploded near the airport in Mogadishu on Monday.
Police said the bomb went off as the car drove by Jazeera hotel which has in the past been bombed by the militant group Al-Shabaab killing the driver.
"An innocent taxi driver was killed and his passenger injured after an explosive device hidden in his car exploded. Security officials have cordoned off the area," a police officer Muse Mohamud told Xinhua.
Witnesses said a huge blast went off near the hotel suspecting it was under attack.
"We heard a heavy blast near Jazeera Hotel and we thought it had been bombed. Police have since closed the road heading to the airport," Said Hussein told Xinhua.
Witnesses said the vehicle was heading to the city center from a parking bay near the airport in Mogadishu when the improvised explosive device exploded near Jazeera hotel.
The attack happened barely a day after former Al-Shabaab deputy leader Mukhtar Robow was flown in to Mogadishu after surrendering to government forces in Bakool region in southwestern Somalia.
Robow's fighters had been fending off a deadly Al-Shabaab onslaught in the last few weeks which resulted in tens of deaths from both sides.
The motive of Monday's attack is however not clear but Al-Shabaab has deployed such low scale attacks in the past.
The group has not claimed responsibility for the attack which comes amid increased assaults on the government and African Union bases in Mogadishu and across the Horn of Africa nation.
