Somalia’s al-Shabaab stormed a government building on Saturday, detonating a suicide car bomb in the heart of the capital Mogadishu with at least 15 people, including an assistant minister, killed during the ensuing gun battle.

In the latest bombing claimed by al-Shabaab, an Islamist group which is fighting to establish its own rule in Somalia, based on a strict interpretation of sharia law, a huge explosion shook central Mogadishu and a large plume of smoke rose above a building housing Somalia’s ministries of labor and works.

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The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) declared the territorial defeat of the Islamic State (ISIS).

The SDF “declare total elimination of so-called caliphate and 100% territorial defeat of ISIS,” Mustafa Bali, head of the force’s press office, announced on Twitter Saturday morning.

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Twenty-three soldiers were killed in a Boko Haram attack in southwestern Chad on Friday, March 22, a military official told AFP.

“Boko Haram elements attacked the Chadian army position at around 1 a.m., killing 23 troops,” the official said.

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Multiple explosions have killed at least six people and wounded 23 near a Shi’ite shrine in Kabul, Afghan officials say.

The Islamic State (IS) militant group claimed responsibility for the March 21 attack, which took place during celebrations marking Norouz, the pre-Islamic Persian new year.

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Clashes erupted once more between the Iraqi army and a Yezidi (Ezidi) militia group affiliated to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Sinjar (Shingal) on Tuesday, days after an initial confrontation that resulted in casualties on both sides.

It is the second showdown involving the two forces after Sunday’s incident in Shingal’s Snuny district.

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