Yemeni government forces captured on Monday the port of Mokha as they pushed to oust Houthi rebels from the Red Sea coastline, an AFP journalist said.

An official statement said government forces recaptured the whole city, but a military commander in the field told AFP that loyalists were still fighting the rebels on the southern outskirts of Mokha.

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Iraqi forces have made a crucial step in the bloody quest to retake Mosul from the Islamic State, according to a spokesman for the country’s military. Iraqi Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool announced that the city’s university has been fully retaken from ISIS militants.

Special forces, known in Iraq as the Counter-Terrorism Service, or CTS, raised the Iraqi flag above the campus Friday, the Associated Press reports — but the troops were still days away from claiming complete control.

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The Islamic State launched their largest offensive of the year inside Syria on Saturday, January 14, targeting the Syrian Arab Army’s (IS) final positions inside the desert province of Deir ez-Zor, AMN reports.

IS began the assault by simultaneously storming the Al-Baghiliyah and Al-Rashidiyah districts of Deir ez-Zor city; this resulted in a fierce battle with the Syrian Arab Army’s 123rd Brigade.

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At least 68 fighters have been killed in two days of fierce battles between Yemeni forces and Shiite Houthi rebels near the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait, military officials said Sunday.

Government forces launched an assault Saturday, recapturing the coastal Dhubab district, just 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of Bab al-Mandab which links the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.

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At least 60 people were killed Saturday by a car bomb attack in Aleppo’s opposition-held Azaz district in northwestern Syria, according to a pro-opposition Syrian civil defense official.

An explosive-laden vehicle blew up in front of a local court in the center of Azaz, Iyad Sheikh Razuk told to Anadolu Agency.

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