ISIS has carried out a string of attacks centering on a popular restaurant on Iraq’s Highway 1, in Nasiriyah. The restaurant is popular with Shi’ite pilgrims and was crowded when gunmen disguised as Shi’te militia burst in shooting, followed by a car bombing outside. ISIS then also bombed a nearby checkpoint.

The death toll has been steadily rising through the day, and provincial health officials say 83 people have been killed, mostly inside the restaurant. Another 93 are reported injured, many of them severely so, meaning the toll could yet rise further.

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Four Yemeni security personnel, including a senior army officer, were killed Wednesday when Shia Houthi militants shelled army positions in the southwestern Taiz province.

The shelling targeted an army outpost in Taiz’s Mawzi district, Abdullah al-Shaabi, a spokesman for forces loyal to President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, told Anadolu Agency.

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Army units expanded their control on the southeastern outskirts of Deir Ezzor city, after inflicting heavy losses upon ISIS terrorists.

SANA reporter in Deir Ezzor said that army units that broke the siege imposed on Deir Ezzor Military Airport, in cooperation with the airport garrison, launched intensive operations during the past hours in the area surrounding al-Jafra village, achieving a new advance that will enhance security around the residential neighborhoods and the military points in the village.

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Islamic State militants ambushed a police convoy in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Monday, killing 18 police and wounding seven others in one of the deadliest attacks this year in the restive region bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Police and military officials said roadside bombs destroyed and set ablaze four armored vehicles and a fifth carrying signal-jamming equipment meant to neutralize roadside bombs that are remotely detonated. The gunmen later opened fire with machine guns and commandeered a police pickup truck.

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The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army declared a month-long unilateral ceasefire, starting on Sunday, to enable aid groups to help ease a humanitarian crisis in northwest Myanmar.

Nearly 300,000 self-identified Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh and 30,000 non-Muslim civilians have been displaced inside Myanmar after the military launched a counter-offensive following attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) insurgents on 30 police posts and an army base on Aug. 25.

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The Ukrainian President has warned that Russia’s latest military drill shows it is preparing its forces for war in Eastern Europe.

Petro Poroshenko said that Moscow’s latest military exercise, which is due to be held in Belarus next week with up to 100,000 troops expected to mobilise on the EU’s eastern borders, demonstrated its increasing ambitions in the region.

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A number of Islamic State (IS) militants were killed on Friday after they were ambushed by Peshmerga in northern Tal Afar, some 65 kilometres west of Mosul.

Peshmerga commander Badirkhan Zebari confirmed to BasNews that six jihadists were gunned down by the Kurdish forces while they were attempting to escape Tal Afar.

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