In an alarming development, al-Qaeda has established a new branch to wage jihad in India, revive its caliphate and impose sharia in the Indian sub-continent, US media and intelligence agencies said today.

The creation of the group called “Qaedat al-Jihad in the Indian Subcontinent” was announced by As Sahab, al-Qaeda’s official media outlet, in a lengthy video posted on the social media outlets including You Tube. The group, headed by senior Pakistani militant Asim Umar, would report to top Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

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As many as 81 insurgents were eliminated and their 35 hideouts destroyed during a clearing operation in southern Helmand province, an official said on Wednesday.

At least seven security personnel were lost to clashes with insurgents during the offensive focused on Garamsir and Khanshin districts, border police chief Brig. Gen. Sultan Mahmood Mahmood told Pajhwok Afghan News.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Pyotr Poroshenko have “to a great extent” agreed on the steps to cease fire in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

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Fierce clashes between Libyan Islamist militiamen and rival forces loyal to a renegade general have killed 31 fighters on both sides, a Libyan security official said Tuesday.

The fighting erupted late on Monday, with forces and fighter jets belonging to Gen. Khalifa Hifter pounding positions of Islamist militias called The Benghazi Revolutionary Shura Council, said the official.

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The Islamic State armed group (ISIS) is committing crimes against humanity on a historic scale in northern Iraq. According to London-based Amnesty International, who have people on the ground there, “entire communities are at risk of being wiped off the map of Iraq”.

Amnesty International interviewed hundreds of witnesses, survivors, and victims, including the families of those who were killed or abducted, and many others displaced by the violence of the Islamic State in its new report, Ethnic cleansing on historic scale: the Islamic State’s systematic targeting of minorities in northern Iraq.

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Islamist rebels clashed Monday with Syrian government forces in the province of Quneitra, close by the Israeli- controlled Golan Heights, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The observatory said in a statement that fighting continued throughout the day between Syrian army units and insurgents including the al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda affiliated group.

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Ukrainian forces were given orders to retreat from the airport in Luhansk, the second-largest rebel-held city, in the face of an intensifying assault, Ukrainian National Security Council spokesman Col. Andriy Lysenko said on Monday, blaming the assault on “professional artillery gunmen of the Russian armed forces.”

Russia consistently denies allegations that it has sent troops or equipment into Ukraine. But Lysenko said Monday that “not less than four battalions and tactical groups of the Russian armed forces are active in Ukraine.”

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