Mogadishu, November 17 (RHC)-- A car bomb blast has left one person dead and another injured in Somalia's capital city of Mogadishu. Sunday's explosion took place on Maka al-Mukarama, one of Mogadishu's busiest central roads, which leads to the city's government district.

Somalia's al-Shabab militants claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying it targeted an immigration official at Aden Adde International Airport who they claimed had died. Witnesses at the scene also said the blast could be heard a number of streets away from the incident.

Somalia has been the scene of clashes between government forces and al-Shabab fighters since 2006. The al-Shabab militants have been pushed out of Mogadishu and other major cities in the country by the African Union Mission in Somalia, which is made up of troops from Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Sierra Leone and Kenya.

The African state did not have an effective central government from 1991 to 2012, when lawmakers elected Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as the new president.