Forces loyal to Syria’s government are taking advantage of deepening rifts among the country’s rebels to advance into rebel-held territory in northern Syria, overturning some long-held assumptions about the war.

The resignation Sunday of a top leader in the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army further underscored the extent to which rebel infighting is undermining the effort not only to topple President Bashar al-Assad but also to hold on to territories won by the opposition in more than two years of conflict.

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Shi’ite Muslim al-Houthi rebels pressed their offensive on Saturday against a town in north Yemen held by their Sunni Muslim Salafi rivals, a Salafi spokesman said, bringing the total death toll in four days of sectarian clashes to 55.

Spokesman Serour al-Wadei denied a statement on the Yemeni defense ministry website saying that the fighting in the town of Dammaj had ended on Friday afternoon and that the Yemeni army had taken up positions in the troubled area.

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Israel strikes in response to 2 rockets fired at southern Israel from Gaza, one of which Iron Dome intercepts over Ashkelon; comes day after mortar fire from Gaza hits South and coincides with Palestinian prisoner release.

The Israel Air Force struck two underground rocket launchers in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday morning in response to earlier rocket fire on the Ashkelon region.

Palestinian sources reported that the IAF strike targeted a site belonging to Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades terrorist group.

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A wave of car bombs has killed at least 52 people and left dozens injured across Iraq.

The deadliest attack on October 27 killed 14 people outside a bank in the northern city of Mosul as soldiers queued to collect their salaries.

Iraqi officials said nine blasts killed at least 30 people and injured 90 others in predominantly Shi’ite areas in and around Baghdad.

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Kurdish rebels on Saturday took control of a key border crossing between Syria and Iraq, in an effort to prevent al-Qaeda-linked groups from entering the region, a Britain-based watchdog said.

Following three days of fighting with the al-Qaeda-linked fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and al-Nusra Front, the Kurdish rebels seized the al-Yaroubiyeh crossing in al-Hasaka province, north-eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

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