The Sudanese army has denied claims by rebels in the country’s western region of Darfur that they killed 11 soldiers in an ambush on Monday.

The official spokesman of the army known as SAF, Al-Sawarmi Khalid Saad, said on Wednesday that no clashes occurred with Darfur rebels during the month of Ramadan and Eid holiday.

Al-Sawarmi was reacting to a news report in which the Darfur rebel Sudan Liberation Movement of Mani Arkoi Minnawi (SLM-MM) said it killed 11 army soldiers in an ambush on Monday.

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Turkish troops have killed 16 Kurdish fighters during an operation in southeastern Turkey in response to a bomb attack on a military convoy that killed five soldiers, according to the local governor’s office.

The clashes, which occurred on Wednesday and Thursday, are part of a growing cycle of violence in the remote, mountainous province of Hakkari bordering Iraq and Iran - a development which Turkish officials and analysts are linking to the deepening conflict in Syria.

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The Ethiopian Federal military is preparing an action plan in the event of an attack following the death of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. The force is deploying ground troops on number of fronts.

Thousands troops backed by heavy artillery are massing up on the country’s border with Somaliland. According to eyewitnesses more than 4,000 soldiers crossed into Jigjiga on Tuesday and are said to be heading to the border.

The news of the build-up has prompted Somaliland to respond and spread its own forces along the long common-border. Local reports indicate that they have been placed on high alert with fears rebels might try to destabilise the region.

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Four Turkish soldiers were killed and two wounded on Wednesday by remote-controlled bombs targeting their convoy, security sources said, the latest sign of escalating violence in the Kurdish region.

The deaths follows a car bombing on Monday that killed nine people, including children, and wounded more than 60 others in the southern town of Gaziantep.

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Heavy shelling and clashes have continued to rage across swathes of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, as both the regime and rebels claim they are gaining ground in the key northern battleground.

At least 24 people were reported to have been killed nationwide on Tuesday, among them women and children in Aleppo, as the Syrian government pressed rebel-held areas.

The rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) claimed that it controlled almost two-thirds of the city, which has been battered by a month of air strikes, shelling and fighting.

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Seven people have been killed in Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli as clashes between Sunni Muslims and Alawites, fuelled by tensions over the war in Syria, continued for a second night, security and medical sources said on Tuesday.

Around 100 people have also been wounded since the fighting erupted on Monday evening, they said.

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Since July 21, when Maj Gen Aung Kyaw Zaw, Commander of Lashio-based Northeastern Region Command issued an ultimatum to Shan State Progress Party / Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA) to withdraw from the current active territory within 5 days or else there would be operations in the areas, there is as yet no clashes.

But, not less than 9 battalions of Burma Army have been surrounding the SSPP/SSA headquarters in Wan Hai Village in Kehsi township, reported a source close to the SSA.

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