A US base and an Italian military convoy were targeted in separate attacks in Somalia on Monday.
Al-Shabaab militants staged a simultaneous car bomb and gun attack on the Baledogle US facility, while the Italian vehicles were hit by an explosion in the country’s capital of Mogadishu, according to officials.
One civilian and seven soldiers, including an officer, were killed at a security checkpoint in the North Sinai city of Bir al-Abd on Friday, in a coordinated attack that was claimed by the Province of Sinai, the Islamic State affiliate in the peninsula.
A medical source and a security source told Mada Masr separately that a pickup truck attacked a military checkpoint in the Tufaha village south of Bir al-Abd.
Khalifa Haftar, the renegade Libyan commander whose forces are battling to capture the country’s capital from its internationally recognised government, has announced his willingness to open dialogue after repeatedly rejecting United Nations calls for talks.
The statement was issued late on Wednesday, hours after Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj called Haftar a “war criminal” and ruled out peace talks during a speech at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
The UN warns that a crisis in the Sahel region including Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso is reaching unprecedented levels.
Intense fighting in Niger has displaced around 70,000 people.
The Libyan National Army announced Saturday that its forces have made new advances on ground in the capital, Tripoli, following what it called a “violent attack against armed militias” loyal to Fayez al-Sarraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA).
LNA spokesman Major General Ahmed al-Mesmari said forces, fighting for six months to liberate Tripoli, have launched a “fierce attack on the terrorist militias in Salah al-Din area to free it and clear it of terrorist and criminal gangs.”