The Israeli military shot down a Syrian fighter jet after it entered Israeli airspace on Tuesday afternoon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, raising fears of further military escalation in the region.

The Russian-made Sukhoi jet entered two kilometers into Israeli airspace when two Patriot missiles were launched to intercept the aircraft, the IDF said. The missiles hit the jet once it had crossed back into Syrian airspace, the IDF said, adding that the military did not know what happened to the pilot of the aircraft.

[Read more…]

Malian troops killed 11 jihadists who had ambushed them in the centre of the country, in clashes that also left one soldier dead, the defence ministry said.

Armed Tuareg groups supporting the government also reported assailants executed more than 20 people on Friday in a village in the northeast.

[Read more…]

The death toll from a suicide attack near Kabul international airport has risen to 23, the health ministry said on Monday, with an AFP driver among the dead.

At least 107 others were wounded in on Saturday’s powerful explosion, which happened as scores of people were leaving the airport after welcoming home Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum from exile.

[Read more…]

Six members of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula have been killed in a battle with government forces backed by the UAE in south-east Yemen.

“The fighting flared up between our forces and a cell affiliated with al-Qaeda in Wadi Sur, in the mountainous chain that stretches between Al Musainya area and the district of Markha to the north of Shabwa,” Col Mohammed Al Bowhar, commander of the elite forces in Shabwa, told The National yesterday.

[Read more…]

Eighteen people have been killed in an attack by suspected Boko Haram extremists in the Lake Chad region, a Chadian military source said Sunday.

“Boko Haram elements attacked a village south of Daboua,” not far from Chad’s border with Niger, at around 9:00 pm (2000 GMT) on Thursday, the military source said.

[Read more…]

At least 11 soldiers were killed in clashes with gunmen in western Iran on Saturday, according to the official IRNA news agency.

Another eight soldiers were injured in the violence that took place in Marivan city in Kordestan province, provincial security chief Reza Mirzaee said.

[Read more…]

Somalia’s Islamist militant group al-Shabaab has captured a small but strategic town 100 km (60 miles) south of Bosaso city in the semi-autonomous Puntland region, a military officer, al-Shabaab and residents said on Friday.

Residents in Af Urur told Reuters that the town is now controlled by al-Shabaab.

[Read more…]