Soldiers and paramilitary forces repulsed an attack by the Islamic State-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) on an Army base in Shariff Aguak town, Maguindanao province, on Wednesday.

Lt. Col. Anhouvic Atilano, spokesperson of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division (ID), said an undetermined number of BIFF members fired rifle grenades at an Army checkpoint in Barangay Labu-labu at past 10 p.m., leading to the 20-minute fierce clash with government troops that caused panic among local residents.

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Indian officials say China is assisting rebel groups that have stepped up attacks on its border with Myanmar in recent months, opening another front in the conflict between two nations already engaged in a deadly standoff in the Himalayas.

Armed groups in Myanmar — including the United Wa State Army and the Arakan Army, which was designated a terrorist organization this year — are acting as Beijing’s proxies by supplying weapons and providing hideouts to insurgent groups in India’s northeastern states, according to Indian officials with knowledge of the situation, who asked not to be identified due to rules for speaking with the media.

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At least 28 Taliban insurgents have been killed and five others were injured during latest crackdowns conducted by the Afghan security forces in southern Kandahar and Uruzgan provinces, defense ministry said Sunday.

Taliban rebels attacked Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) positions in Dand, Marof and Zherai district that shortly the Afghan security forces triggered retaliatory attack, killing 18 Taliban fighters, the ministry said in a statement.

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Azerbaijan has said that 2,783 of its soldiers were killed during its conflict with ethnic Armenian forces over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and that more than 100 of its troops were still missing.

Azerbaijan had until Thursday not disclosed any of its military losses in the conflict that erupted on September 27 and came to a halt on November 10 when a Russian-brokered peace deal ushered in a ceasefire.

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Armenia agreed to hand over three districts around Karabakh – Aghdam, Lachin and Kalbajar – as part of the Russia-brokered deal in early November that stopped the fighting in the Karabakh region.

Azerbaijani forces have entered the Lachin district, the last of three handed back by Armenia as part of a deal that ended weeks of fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh.

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