Puntland Security personnel arrested SSC terrorist commander Yasin Ali Tamaad in the central Somali town of Galkayo where he was a transit on his way back from Mogadishu. Yasin Tamaad is in charge of the military wing of the terrorist group Sool Sanaag and Cayn (SSC) and in the recent days has verbally threatened to attack Somaliland forces when he comes back to the region.

Puntland Security forces arrested Tamaad after he got off a flight from Mogadishu in which he is suspected of receiving funds and weapons from the weak Transition Federal Government of Mogadishu. He was in Mogadishu last several weeks holding talks with members of the TFG and alShabaab in Mogadishu to solicit funds and weapons.

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More than 250 soldiers loyal to Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland have defected from the pirate infested region to form a clan militia, source reports.

According to Hargeisa-based newspaper Haatuf, more than 250 troops, who took part in the August 2010 Galgala conflict between Abdirahman Farole of Garowe and a local warlord, Sheikh Mohamed Atam, have established their own base outside Badhan. The troops, who belong to the Warsangeli tribe is led by Abdulrasaq Kun-Liq. The defected troops have not joined a Somaliland base in the town either.

The paper also revealed other members of the army that was in the area have deserted their positions and returned to the town of Gardo (Qardho), in the district of Karkaar, in Puntland.

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Border skirmishes between Thailand and Cambodia flared for a second day in an ongoing dispute over an ancient Hindu temple, a Thai military official said Wednesday.

There were several exchanges of gunfire overnight, according to Col. Sansern Kaewkumnerd, a Thai military spokesman, who said the exchanges were brief.

Some hand grenades were thrown and one Thai soldier was injured, he said.

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More than 200 people died in a rebel attack in south Sudan’s troubled Jonglei state last week, a senior southern official said on Tuesday, nearly double an earlier death toll.

“We counted 201 casualties. I sadly helped to participate in burying some of the bodies,” Stephen Kuol, Jonglei’s state minister for education, told AFP.

Kuol had just returned from a government assessment mission to Fangak county in northern Jonglei, where the fighting took place.

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At least nine Somali civilians have been killed after fresh clashes between Somali Government troops backed by African Union troops and al-Shabaab fighters.

Clashes broke out in the southern sector of Somalia’s capital city Mogadishu, on Monday, a Somaliweyn correspondent reported.

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Somaliland forces based in the village of Kalshale in Buhodle region of East Somaliland came under a were surprise attack by SSC militia from three different sides in the early mornings on Monday. The fighting erupted early hours after morning prayers and has continued for four hours before the fighting stopped.

Nuh Taani, Somaliland armed forces chief General told local media in Hargeisa the SSC militia were heavily-armed however the army was ready and responded with heavy artillery and machine guns.

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The top military command of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army on Thursday said repelled forces loyal to General George Athor from Fangak County, Jonglei State, following a clash between the two armed forces on Wednesday and Thursday in the area.

Dok James Puok, spokesman of the rebel group in an interview with Sudan Tribune from Juba claimed Wednesday that their forces captured Fangak County from SPLA forces after launching an attack on their operational outposts in three different locations.

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