An explosion at a base belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has killed 18 people and injured 14.

Reports are emerging of the blast at an ammunitions store on Tuesday in north-western Lorestan province.

The injured were taken to Khoramabad, 300 miles (500 km) southwest of Tehran.

An elite military force, the Revolutionary Guard was set up shortly after the 1979 Iranian revolution to defend the country’s Islamic system.

The north-west of Iran has seen several attacks in recent months by Kurdish militants against the Iranian military.

The military is fighting armed groups and separatist movements in the south-east along the border with Pakistan as well as in the far north-west along the border with Iraq.

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Two apparently synchronized bombs have exploded in the southern city of Aden, killing two people and wounding 12 others.

The first bomb went off outside a sports club in the port city, wounding four people and sending police and rescue units rushing to the scene.

The second bomb exploded once they had arrived, injuring 10 more, including three soldiers. A security official told the Associated Press that the two people killed were civilians who died of their wounds at a hospital.

Qassim al-Rimi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the organisation’s Yemen offshoot, announced on Monday via an Internet recording the formation of an “Aden-Abyan Army” that would free the country of “crusaders and their apostate agents,” according to the AFP news agency.

The recording was posted on the Al-Malaham website.

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Israel’s air force struck “two terror targets” in northern Gaza overnight in response to recent rocket fire into the Jewish state from the Palestinian territory, Israel Defense Forces said Thursday.

There was no word on casualties and no immediate response from Palestinian officials.

The Israeli military said more than 160 rockets and mortars have been fired at Israel this year, and more than 440 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel since the end of Operation Cast Lead — Israel’s three-week offensive in Gaza that began in late December 2008.

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Iranian forces crossed into neighbouring Iraq and killed 30 fighters from a group Tehran said was involved in last week’s bombing of a military parade, state TV reported.

General Abdolrasoul Mahmoudabadi of the elite Revolutionary Guards told the TV that the “terrorists” were killed in a clash on Saturday “beyond the border” and that his forces were still in pursuit of two men who escaped the ambush.

While Iran has said in the past it would target armed groups on Iraqi soil, this is a rare case of it actually admitting to an attack.

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The clashes are continuing between the army and Al-Qaeda in Yemen’s Southeastern Province of Shabwa, the Defense and Interior Ministries as well as Shabwa Governor and local officials have said.

The battlefield is the Al-Hawtah town, the largest in Shabwa, and the confrontations are running not far from the area where the botched bombing of the LNG pipeline took place last week, they said.

Among the terrorist fighters are foreigners, and militants took over homes in the area and displaced the people. According to Shabwa Governor Ali Al-Ahmedi and Secretary General of the Local Council, who also said that the army and special counter terrorism forces are besieging the region and will not leave it until the terrorists surrender.

The confrontations started on Friday after suspected al-Qaeda militants ambushed a security patrol killing and injuring soldiers and civilians on Thursday, the Interior Ministry has previously said.

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http://www.yemenpost … SubID=2601&MainCat=3