Without much media attention, thousands of American troops are being deployed to Israel, and Iranian officials believe that this is the latest and most blatant warning that the US will soon be attacking Tehran.

Tensions between nations have been high in recent months and have only worsened in the weeks since early December when Iran hijacked and recovered an American drone aircraft. Many have speculated that a back-and-forth between the two countries will soon escalate Iran and the US into an all-out war, and that event might occur sooner than thought.

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Burmese government troops this week mounted an aggressive assault to overrun another strategic Kachin Independence Army (KIA) base in Lwaigyai near the Sino-Burma border.

According to the KIA, more than 90 battles or clashes have broken out since the president ordered his commanders to put an end to hostilities in the northern region.

More than 160 clashes between government forces and Kachin troops were recorded by the KIA for the month of December—more than 90 of which broke out after the presidential order on Dec. 10, said La Nan, the spokesman for the KIA’s political wing, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO).

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At least 26 people have been killed and 13 wounded so far this year in two attacks by Rwandan Hutu rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, an army official said Wednesday.

The attacks - blamed on the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) - took place on the nights of January 1 and 3 in the Shabunda region in Sud Kivu province.

“The first attack targeted the leadership of Luyuyu and killed 18 civilians while six houses were burned,” Colonel Sylvain Ekenge, spokesman for military operations in Nord and Sud Kivu, told AFP.

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Clashes between rival tribes in a South Sudan town have left hundreds dead, a UN official has said.

Government troops opened fire to stop about 6,000 armed Lou Nuer tribal youth from entering the town of Pibor in Jonglei state which is home to the rival Murle people, Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for South Sudan, said on Tuesday.

Tensions between the two tribes over cattle rustling have mounted in recent months.

“There were more than a hundred children who were orphaned and unaccompanied,” Grande told Al Jazeera.

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Syrian army deserters killed at least 18 members of President Bashar al-Assad’s security forces in the southern province of Deraa on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

It said dozens of soldiers who deserted their posts at dawn came under fire from a police station in the town of Jassem as they fled with their weapons.

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An OLF splinter group (Jijirama-OLF) created by Ex-OPDO officials has held a meeting in the United States and appears to have “amended” the OLF program to embrace Ethiopian federalism and reject the Oromia secession agenda.

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The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) has announced its historic decision to drop its long-held secessionist agenda and to embrace the unity of Ethiopia under a genuine federal arrangement that must guarantee the rights, equality and liberty of all Ethiopians.

In a historic press release, the OLF, led by Brigadier General Kemal Gelchu, issued at the conclusion of its extraordinary National Council plenary, held on December 30 and 31 in Minnesota, the front spelt out its new vision in an unprecedented clarity. The meeting was also open to any non-Oromo Ethiopians for the first time.

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