Somali security forces stormed a hotel in the capital late on Monday ending a siege by Al Shabaab militants following a nearly day-long battle in which at least nine people were killed, police said.
Gunfire crackled from inside the building as the special forces fought the group more than 12 hours after it stormed the building in the centre of Mogadishu.
The assault underscores the continuing ability of the Al Qaeda-allied outfit to stage deadly attacks with sometimes high casualties inside the city even as President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud's government presses an offensive against them.
"The operation at the hotel Rosa has been concluded," Sadik Aden Ali, a police spokesperson said.
Ali said the militants had killed eight civilians and later added that one soldier had also died in the hotel siege.
Five soldiers were also injured in the gunfight, he said, adding that six Al Shabaab fighters had been involved in the attack on the hotel.
"One blew himself up and five were shot dead by the security forces," Ali said, adding that 60 civilians had been rescued.
Thousands of people gathered in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka on Tuesday to mark the first anniversary of mass protests that toppled Sheikh Hasina, as the interim government unveiled a road map for democratic reform with a national election next year.
Israel says it will allow gradual and controlled entry of goods to Gaza through local merchants, an Israeli military agency that coordinates aid said on Tuesday, as global monitors say famine is unfolding in the enclave, impacting the hostages Hamas holds.
Surging floodwaters and a torrent of mud swept through a village in the northern Indian Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, killing at least four people while more than 50 others were missing, authorities and local TV channels said on Tuesday.
Japan recorded its highest-ever temperature of 41.8 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, prompting the government to advise residents to stay indoors and promise steps to ease weather-related damage to rice crops.
The UAE has firmly rejected allegations from the Port Sudan Authority accusing the country of supporting armed groups in Sudan's ongoing civil conflict.