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Thirteen Philippine marines were killed and at least 40 others were wounded in a 14-hour clash with militants linked to the Islamic State in the city of Marawi, the military said on Saturday.
It was believed to be the deadliest single-day toll for military forces battling Islamist militants from the Abu Sayyaf and Maute groups that seized part of the city in May, beginning a wave of violence across Marawi and displacing tens of thousands of Filipinos.
A massive explosion in one of Kabul’s most secure neighborhoods has killed at least 90 and injured more than 400, according to the Associated Press. The death toll is expected to rise.
The blast came in the midst of Kabul’s busy morning rush hour and at the heart of one of the nation’s most important commercial and government districts, near the presidential palace and full of foreign embassies, government offices, a television station, supermarkets and banks. The German embassy was heavily damaged and The Washington Post reports that workers in the Japanese embassy were injured, but the exact target is unknown. According to media accounts, windows were shattered and the ground shook as far as a mile away.
Government forces have regained complete control of the city of Marawi and the clashes with the Daesh-linked Maute group will soon come to an end, spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines said Monday, according to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency (AA).
“Our forces are in complete control of the city, except for certain areas where they continue to hold. These are the subject of clearing operations that are continuously being conducted,” Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla Jr. was quoted as saying by GMA News.
At least 15 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban fighters attacked their army base in the southern province of Kandahar, the defence ministry said Friday, in the second such assault this week.
The attack in Shah Wali Kot district late Thursday came just three days after 10 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban militants stormed another base in the same area.
Thirteen members of the Maute group were killed in clashes with government troops in Marawi City, said Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Public Affairs Office Chief Col. Edgard Arevalo on Wednesday.
In a press briefing, Arevalo said 13 Maute group members are dead, but only 2 bodies have been recovered.