At least 10 killed and 35 others wounded following two bomb explosions targeted a Khat market in Af Urur, about 100KM (60 miles) south of Bosasso in Somalia’s northeastern region of Puntland on Friday.

Local officials said at first an Improvised Explosives Device (IED) planted near a Khat kiosk went off in midday on Friday as many soldiers and civilians were there to buy the stimulant leafy green, resulting number of deaths and injuries. A second blast, which some residents suspect was a mortar shelling, targeted rescuers trying to help those affected by the first explosion.

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At least three soldiers were killed and 52 others were wounded as fighting between government security forces and Islamic State-inspired militants continued on the eve of Eid’l Adha here, a military official confirmed Friday.

Joint Task Force Marawi and Western Mindanao Command Spokesperson Captain Jo-ann Petinglay told the Inquirer that the fighting in the frontline was intense the whole day on Thursday.

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As international attention has shifted to the fight against Islamic State militants in eastern Syria, a little-noticed but bitter struggle continues on the outskirts of the capital, Damascus.

There, government forces are determined to reclaim one of the last remaining urban areas controlled by rebel factions committed to overthrowing President Bashar Assad.

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Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga General Command has confirmed the killing of at least 130 Islamic State (IS) militants while trying to escape from Tel Afar to Syria.

“After being defeated in Tel Afar and Ayaziya [districts in west of Mosul], the remaining Daesh insurgents attempted to open a path into the Syrian territories; but Kurdistan’s Peshmerga forces readily ambushed the fleeing militants,” reads a statement by Peshmerga General Command.

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A suicide bombing in a busy commercial area in Kabul near a string of banks and not far from the U.S. Embassy killed at least five people on Tuesday, Afghan officials said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Elsewhere, at least 13 civilians were killed in an overnight airstrike by the Afghan air force that targeted the Taliban in western Herat province.

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