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UN and Democratic Republic of Congo troops are reinforcing a key city in the east of the country to guard against attack by rebels who have seized ground in recent days.
DR Congo authorities and the United Nations fear that the M23 movement, which took one town on the Uganda border last week and forced 600 government troops to flee, may target the provincial capital of Goma, UN officials said.
Israeli fighter jets on Tuesday morning bombarded several sites in the southern Gaza Strip, without causing injuries.
Three missiles landed in a militant base of the Al-Ansar Brigades, the military wing of Al-Ahrar movement, in Khan Younis, witnesses said. The airstrike caused material damage, but no injuries were reported.
Rebel fighters in the Democratic Republic of Congo seized control Sunday of more towns in the country’s east, but said they would cede most of their gains to UN peacekeepers and police.
“We have seized Rubare, Rutshuru, Kalengera and Kako,” said rebel leader Colonel Sultani Makenga at Bunagana, the border post with Uganda.
“Even though we have taken these districts, we will withdraw and leave them to MONUSCO and national police,” added Makenga, who was wearing a regular army uniform with a pistol at his hip, surrounded by around 30 well-armed bodyguards.
The Shan State Army-North (SSA-North) has agreed to withdraw from two of its military bases at the request of the Burmese government’s Union Peacemaking Work Committee (UPWC) in order to avoid conflict during the ongoing peace talks.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, Sai La, the spokesperson for the SSA-North, said, “We are taking into consideration the interests of local farmers who need to sow rice at this time of year. If the conflict continues they will be forced from their farms.”
He said that the SSA-North will continue monitoring the situation on the ground as it withdraws its bases as per the agreement.
Yemeni airstrikes killed three al-Qaeda fighters and wounded seven in the country’s south, a Yemeni military official said Wednesday. The strikes by Yemen’s air force were part of an offensive against the militants.
The official said the raids targeted militants in the border between Abyan and Shabwa provinces.
Al-Qaeda militants took advantage of a year of internal turmoil in Yemen that eventually led to the resignation of longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh to overrun large areas of the south.
Some 600 Congolese soldiers have fled into Uganda, following clashes with rebels who have seized a border town.
The Ugandan military said the fleeing troops had been disarmed.
As the rebels took control of the Democratic Republic of Congo side of the town of Bunagana, an Indian peacekeeper was killed, the UN says.
A civil society leader says rebels have seized the strategic village of Jomba in east Congo thus cutting access to a border crossing into Uganda and Rwanda. Congo’s army denied that.
A statement from the Civil Society Coordination for North Kivu province, signed by vice president Omar Kavota, said residents have reported that M23 rebels attacked before dawn Thursday and fought army troops for four hours to dislodge them from the center that also has a large Catholic mission and school. It is the only major village on the road from Bunagana border post to the eastern town of Rutshuru.