Islamic State’s West Africa branch claimed responsibility on Wednesday for a raid in Nigeria two days earlier in which it said 20 soldiers had been killed, and released a video purporting to show the execution of nine other Nigerian soldiers.

A security source and a humanitarian worker, both requesting anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to media, said insurgents struck the northeastern town of Gubio in Borno state on Monday evening, in vehicles mounted with heavy machine guns and on motorbikes.

[Read more…]

Military officials in Ukraine said that eight soldiers were captured in the eastern region of the country occupied by pro-Russian separatists just one day after Ukraine’s newly sworn-in president announced he would submit a peace plan for a referendum.

Pro-Russian separatists and their Russian backers had occupied the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine ever since a pro-Western movement ousted former President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. An estimated 13,000 people have since died in the fighting.

[Read more…]

Philippine security forces killed at least five suspected communist guerrillas in two clashes in the southern Mindanao region during the weekend, the military said Tuesday.

A group of 20 soldiers on foot patrol on Sunday in the town of Carmen in Surigao del Sur province came upon 10 men believed to be New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas, who engaged the troops in a gunbattle for several minutes, said Capt. Francisco Garello, the local army spokesman.

[Read more…]

Terrorists from Jabhat al-Nusra (outlawed in Russia) tried to attack Russia’s Hmeymim Airbase in Syria with a multiple launch rocket system. The air defense alert force repelled the attack and destroyed the target, the Russian Defense Ministry told journalists on Monday.

[Read more…]

In Egypt, security sources have announced a suspected bomb attack on a tourist bus near the world-famous Giza pyramids. Initial reports indicate that 16 people were hurt in the attack, but that their injuries are believed to be relatively minor. If this is confirmed to be a terrorist bombing then it would be the latest in a long string of incidents, that are aimed at disrupting Egypt’s vital tourism sector.

[Read more…]