 | Wars in the World |
Daily News on Wars in the World and on New States
| FOLLOW US ON: FACEBOOK X FLIPBOARD TELEGRAM |
The French Pacific islands of New Caledonia began voting Sunday on whether to become an independent nation, in a closely-watched test of support for France in one of its many territories scattered around the globe.
Some 18,000 kilometres (11,000 miles) from the French mainland, New Caledonia is home to a quarter of the world’s known supplies of nickel — a vital electronics component — and is a strategic foothold for France in the Pacific.
The self-declared state of Somaliland is stepping up its push for international recognition, warning that the world’s continued refusal to formally accept its independence threatens to plunge the breakaway region back into armed conflict with Somalia.
“We have made a lot of progress in the past 27 years and now we are recognised as a de facto state” Saad Ali Shire, foreign minister, said in an interview in the capital, Hargeisa. “[But] the next 27 years is not going to be like the first,” he said. “War is bound to happen unless the problem is settled peacefully one way or another.”
A total of 10 militants have been killed and six others injured as clashes erupted in a northern province on Thursday, provincial police spokesman Sanahullah Ruhani said.
The clashes, according to the official, broke out in Shiwa area of Arghanchkhaw district of Badakhshan province at 02:00 a.m. local time and lasted for several hours and the militants fled away after leaving 10 bodies behind and six more injured.
Turkey’s military carried out airstrikes in northern Iraq on Wednesday, killing 23 militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), it said on Twitter.
The airstrikes targeted several regions in the neighboring northern Iraq, including the Qandil mountains, a PKK stronghold, the military said.
The Syrian Arab Army carried out a powerful attack inside the Idlib buffer zone last night after monitoring the jihadist movements along the Hama axis.
According to a military source in the provincial capital of Hama, the Syrian Arab Army’s 11th Tank Division repeatedly struck the defenses of Jaysh Al-Izza near the town of Jinabrah after they were seen moving towards their front-lines.