Philippine officials have signed a power-sharing accord with the country’s largest Muslim rebel group and expect to sign a final peace pact with the insurgents next month to end a decadeslong rebellion in the volatile south.

The accord, which outlines the powers of a Muslim autonomous government in a region to be called Bangsamoro, was signed Sunday by negotiators for the government and the 11,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Malaysia, which has been brokering the talks, officials said Monday.

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Indian army and police forces battled militants overnight in Kashmir, killing three of them, the army said Tuesday, a day after militants killed a top police official in the disputed Himalayan region.

Indian forces launched the joint operation Monday night after learning that militants were hiding in a forest village in the Handwara region, army spokesman Lieut. Colonel Nitin Narhar Joshi said.

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The month’s first two clashes were fought between the Shan State Army (SSA) South and the Burma Army columns that have, since last month, increased their “territorial clearance and “territorial control” operations, according to the SSA commander Col Kherh Ngeun.

“We had instructed our units to avoid confrontation since last month,” he said. “But it only seems to have encouraged the BurmaArmy to increase its movements in our operational areas.”

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A brief fire fight took place between KIA troops and a Burmese army column near Namlim Pa IDP camp on Nov 20 for about 20 minutes. KIA troops have been ordered by central command not to ambush and fire first. KIA sources say the fire fight started when Burmese army troops began to trespass their territory from Saga Nam Hkum village on Wednesday at around 3 pm.

A local source says about 100 soldiers entered Nam Ngawn Bum village on Nov 20 at about 9 pm.

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Burmese army soldiers entered Namlim Pa, a village of about 2300 residents that include IDPs and school children, by firing gunshots on Nov 16 at about 4:30 pm, reported a local source. The soldiers then surrounded Namlim Pa IDP Camp and a school located inside the village. About 700 school children and 34 teachers are among the residents being surrounded by Burmese army soldiers.

Namlim Pa village originally had a total population of about 700. About 1000 IDPs from surrounding villages in Mansi Township arrived in Namlim Pa after renewed battles began in KIA’s 12th and 27th Battalion areas in mid-October. The latest round of military clashes led to the rise in the number of IDP population to about 1500.

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