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A unit of the Armed Forces and security members at Taftanaz Airport in Idlib confronted several armed terrorist groups which attacked the airport with heavy weapons and mortars.
An official source told SANA reporter that the Armed Forces killed a large number of terrorists and destroyed their vehicles which were equipped with machineguns, in addition to destroying a weapons carrier.
A new video from the Syria conflict that circulated via the Internet on Thursday showed antigovernment fighters armed with rifles kicking and summarily executing a group of prisoners, apparently soldiers or militiamen, in what human rights activists called evidence of a war crime and another indication that both sides were increasingly committing atrocities.
The graphic video, which could not be authenticated independently but still attracted the attention of Amnesty International and other rights groups, appeared to have been made in Saraqeb, a town in Idlib Province in northern Syria that has been the scene of particularly brutal fighting between rebels and loyalists in the 20-month-old conflict.
Syrian rebels killed 78 soldiers on Thursday, about half of them in attacks on military checkpoints in the north just hours after a wave of bombings hit the Damascus area, activists said.
The unusually high toll for regime forces came after days of intense air bombardment of rebel positions around the country that killed hundreds more.
The Burmese government and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) have agreed to begin political dialogue this coming month, according to KIO spokesman La Mai Gum Ja.
The announcement came following preliminary peace talks on October 30 in the Chinese town of Ruili where a delegation from Naypyidaw led by President’s Office Minister Aung Min met with KIO representatives headed by Kachin politician Sumlut Gam.
“We have agreed to continue political negotiations,” said Gum Ja. “Assuming our central committee agrees to the proposal, we will meet in November at a venue inside Burma.”
The European Union is considering sending about 200 troops to train Mali’s army to retake the Islamist-held north, but is not willing to deploy them in battle, EU officials said on Tuesday.
Fears are growing in Europe that the African country could turn into a platform for terrorist attacks, after Islamist fighters seized two-thirds of its territory earlier this year.
“There is a willingness among member states to put boots on the ground - but only on the parade ground,” one of the EU officials said. “I haven’t heard from member states a willingness to put people in the field.”
Syrian opposition backers say fighting and airstrikes across the country killed more than 120 people Tuesday, including a government air force general.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Syrian warplanes struck Maarat al-Numan, a strategic, rebel-held town on the Damascus-Aleppo highway.
At least six Colombian police officers have been killed and seven others injured in an attack by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), regional police sources say.
The attack was carried out on Monday afternoon in Padilla town in the Cauca state where armed rebels killed six motorcycle police officers, said country’s police director Gen. Jose Roberto Leon.
Those injured were rushed to a nearby hospital, he added.