Somalia suicide attack: Gunfight called off; at least 15 killed

A gun battle between Somalia's security forces and Islamist group Al Shabaab's fighters in the capital Mogadishu on Saturday has ended, leaving 15 people dead, police said. Fighting broke out at a building housing the country's labour and works ministries after Al Shabaab stormed a government building on Saturday, detonating a suicide car bomb in the heart of the capital Mogadishu.

It was the latest bombing claimed by Al Shabaab, an Islamist group which is fighting to establish its own rule in Somalia, based on a strict interpretation of sharia law.

Al Shabaab, which is trying to topple Somalia's Western-backed central government, was ejected from Mogadishu in 2011 and has since been driven from most of its other strongholds.

But it remains a threat, with its fighters frequently carrying out bombings in Somalia and neighbouring Kenya, whose troops form part of the African Union mandated peacekeeping force AMISOM that helps defend Somalia's central government.