Friday, 6 March, 2020

Gunmen opened fire on a memorial ceremony Friday in Kabul, killing at least 32 people and wounding dozens more in the first major attack in the Afghan capital since the U.S. signed a peace framework with the Taliban late last week. Several prominent politicians, including the country’s chief executive and recent presidential candidate, Abdullah Abdullah, were in the audience but escaped unharmed.
A spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of the Interior said the gunmen retreated to a nearby building, where they were killed during an hours-long standoff with security forces.
[Read more…]
Thursday, 5 March, 2020

Russia and Turkey have said they have agreed to a ceasefire in Syria’s Idlib province after clashes left scores of Turkish and Syrian soldiers dead in a dangerous escalation of violence.
Speaking at the Kremlin, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that the ceasefire would begin at midnight on Thursday evening and that they hoped it would defuse tensions in the region.
[Read more…]
Wednesday, 4 March, 2020

Armed assailants killed four police officers and two civilian militiamen in an attack on a military base in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state on Wednesday.
Suspected Boko Haram fighters in trucks fitted with machine guns launched the dawn raid on the army base in the town of Damboa, sparking intense fighting.
[Read more…]
Tuesday, 3 March, 2020

A Turkish fighter jet downed a Syrian regime warplane over the northwestern Idlib province Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said, in the third such downing in three days.
Turkey on Sunday confirmed it had launched a military operation against Russia-backed regime forces in the border region, where Ankara supports some rebel groups.
[Read more…]
Monday, 2 March, 2020

Special Forces from the Puntland “army” have successfully repulsed an aggressive attack waged by troops loyal to the breakaway region of Somaliland, officials said, during Wednesday’s nasty clashes in Sanaag region, in the north of Somalia, Garowe Online report.
Troops from secessionist Somaliland invaded parts of Sanaag region on Wednesday morning, which is controlled by Puntland, a Federal state of Somalia, precipitating a fierce battle between the two sides.
[Read more…]
Sunday, 1 March, 2020

Turkish drone strikes in Syria’s Idlib province killed 19 regime soldiers on Sunday, a war monitor reported, as tensions soared between Damascus and Ankara.
The 19 died in strikes on a military convoy in the Jabal al-Zawiya area and a base near Maaret al-Numan city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
[Read more…]
Saturday, 29 February, 2020

The U.S. and the Taliban have struck a deal that paves the way for eventual peace in Afghanistan. U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad and the head of the militant Islamist group, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, signed the potentially historic agreement Saturday in Doha, Qatar, where the two sides spent months hashing out its details.
Under the terms of the deal, the U.S. commits to withdrawing all of its military forces and supporting civilian personnel, as well as those of its allies, within 14 months. The drawdown process will begin with the U.S. reducing its troop levels to 8,600 in the first 135 days and pulling its forces from five bases.
[Read more…]