The Iraqi military backed by U.S.-led coalition aircraft on Thursday launched a long-awaited operation to recapture the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State militants, a military spokesman said.

In the push, Iraqi forces retook several villages on the outskirts of the town of Makhmour, east of Mosul, early in the morning on Thursday and hoisted the Iraqi flag there, according to the spokesman for the Joint Military Command, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool.

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The US military struck an al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) training camp located in the mountains of Southern Yemen killing at least 50 militants, medics and a local official said on Wednesday.

On 5 March, an al-Shabaab terrorist camp in Somalia was attacked killing at least 150 people.

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Turkish military forces shelled Daesh in northern Iraq after the terror group attempted an attack on the Bashiqa military camp on Tuesday morning.

Military sources said that a group of Daesh militants attempted an attack on the camp near Mosul, a stronghold of the group in northern Iraq, but Turkish military foiled the plot by opening fire on them.

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Russia says its jets are flying in support of the Syrian military’s offensive to recapture the ancient city of Palmyra from Islamic State (IS) militants.

Sergei Rudskoi of the Russian Military General Staff said on March 18 that Russia’s aircraft based in Syria were conducting up to 25 bombing raids daily to back up the “large-scale operation.”

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Kurdish YPG fighters in northern Syria

Syria’s Kurds on Thursday declared a federal region in areas under their control in the north of the conflict-riven country, but both the government and an opposition coalition rejected the move.

The announcement is likely to anger neighboring Turkey and has complicated peace talks in Geneva aimed at ending the five-year civil war.

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