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A new armed group calling itself the ‘Soldiers of the Caliphate in Algeria’ has split from al-Qaeda’s North African branch and sworn loyalty to the group calling itself the Islamic State (IS), fighting in Syria and Iraq.
In a communique released on Sunday, a regional commander of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said he broke away from the group, accusing it of “deviating from the true path.”
Militias fighting with Islamist groups in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi have captured up to 25 soldiers and killed five others, according to an army commander in the city.
Special forces commander Fadhil al-Hasi told Reuters that fighters from Majlis al-Shura, a Misrata-linked militia coalition including the powerful Ansar al-Sharia, had attacked an army checkpoint, killing five.
The US military has killed the leader of an al-Qaida-linked Islamic group in a Somalia airstrike, the Pentagon announced Friday.
“We have confirmed that Ahmed Godane, the co-founder of al-Shabaab, has been killed,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said in a statement. “The U.S. military undertook operations against Godane on Sept. 1, which led to his death. Removing Godane from the battlefield is a major symbolic and operational loss to al-Shabaab. The United States works in coordination with its friends, allies and partners to counter the regional and global threats posed by violent extremist organizations.”
Mozambican President Armando Guebuza shook hands with opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama, agreeing to end months of violence.
The meeting today in the capital, Maputo, marked the ratification of a peace agreement between the Mozambican National Resistance, known as Renamo, and the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique, or Frelimo, signed last month.
Hundreds of civilians are fleeing Nigeria’s northeastern city of Maiduguri as fears grow that Islamist Boko Haram militants may try to assault the Borno state capital after seizing towns and territory around it, residents said on Thursday.
Heavily-armed Boko Haram fighters using captured military vehicles and weapons have taken towns and villages to the north, east and south of Maiduguri in the last few weeks and days in an apparent strategy to encircle the city and hold territory.
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.
Islamist rebels blew up a car bomb on Sunday at a national-intelligence site in Somalia’s capital where suspected militants are held, and gunmen then attacked the site, officials and the rebel group said.
Seven militants were killed in the attack and in fighting at the Mogadishu facility, according to an intelligence officer, who asked that he be identified only as Nur. He gave no details on casualties among the security forces, if any.