mogadishu explosion
© Twitter/ Amichai Stein
At least 13 people dead after two suicide attacks in the area of Somalia's Mogadishu airport, media reports.

The blasts were in fact twin suicide car bombs tearing through checkpoints near Mogadishu International Airport, according to Harun Maruf, a local journalist.

Al-Shabaab, a radical Islamist group, has taken responsibility for the attacks, claiming to have killed over 12 people, Reuters reports.

According to Al Jazeera, the first explosion occurred near the entrance used by African Union forces, while the second blast hit a checkpoint manned by Somali government forces.

A huge column of smoke is seen rising from the site of the blasts. Witness reports are coming of gunfire being heard in the area of Somalia's Mogadishu airport.

​One of the witnesses reports ambulances rushing to the scene of the attacks.

Local officials have not yet commented on the situation.

Somalia has been experiencing violence since the country devolved into civil war in the early 1990s. The state's collapse provided a breeding ground for warlords, pirates and the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Shabaab. The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) was deployed in the country in 2007.