Bahrain’s foreign minister says Gulf states are launching a joint military command based in Saudi Arabia to counter threats from militant jihadis and Shia Iran.

Sheikh Khalid al-Khalifa said the joint command force, which analysts say will eventually have several hundred thousand soldiers under its control, would begin military operations after a Gulf Co-operation Council summit due to take place later this month in Qatar.

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Suspected Boko Haram militants, who arrived on motorcycles throwing bombs, raided a mostly Christian town in Nigeria’s northeast after nightfall on Saturday, residents and a military source said.

Residents said scores of people had been killed in the town of Shani, but a police source said they had been unable to verify the death toll as communications to the town had been largely cut off.

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Heavy fighting between government and rebel forces broke out in Fangak County, Jonglei State, late Friday with both sides using heavy artilleries, the South Sudan News Agency has learned.

The latest fighting casts doubts on the success of the ongoing peace talks in Ethiopia.

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Heavy fighting resumed between Kurdish forces and Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Kobane in the early hours of Saturday, a Peshmerga commander in the city said.

“Fighting has broken out in the south and northeast of the city and heavy weaponry is used in the fight,” Brigadier Toufik Khazyavayi told Rudaw by telephone.

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At least 120 people were killed and 270 others wounded on Friday when two suicide bombers blew themselves up and gunmen opened fire during weekly prayers at the mosque of one of Nigeria’s top Islamic leaders.

The attack at the Grand Mosque in Kano, the biggest city in the mainly Muslim north of the country, came just as Friday prayers had started.

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