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Officials and residents say militants with the Islamic State extremist group have seized two small towns in northern Iraq after driving out Kurdish security forces.
Mosul governor Atheel al-Nujaifi, who fled to the largely autonomous Kurdish region when the Islamic State group and allied Sunni militants seized Iraq’s second largest city in June, told The Associated Press on Sunday that the towns of Zumar and Sinjar fell after fierce clashes that erupted the day before.
A sharp escalation in fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh has left 15 soldiers dead and prompted Russia to issue an urgent call for calm.
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that 12 of its troops have been killed in the past four days, including four overnight. Nagorno-Karabakh’s armed forces said one of its soldiers was killed early Saturday, the third in recent days.
Tribesmen have risen up against the extremist Islamic State group in eastern Syria, forcing it from three villages after heavy clashes that left more than a dozen people dead, activists said Saturday.
It was the first sign of local resistance to the extremist group since its fighters captured large parts of the oil-rich eastern province of Deir el-Zour in recent weeks.
With the sound of artillery fire in the distance, dozens of international investigators arrived Friday at the zone where a Malaysia Airlines plane crashed in eastern Ukraine and began preparations to comb the rural area for remains of as many as 80 victims and jet debris.
Several hours before they arrived, at least 10 Ukrainian soldiers were killed when their convoy was ambushed by pro-Russian separatist rebels in a town close to the wreckage site. Thirteen more soldiers were unaccounted for after the attack, officials said, and the bodies of four more people were being examined to determine whether they were soldiers or rebels.
Israel and Islamist militant group Hamas have agreed to a 72-hour cease-fire in their conflict in the Gaza Strip starting on Friday, US Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday.
The Prime Minister’s Office announced that Israel will observe the cease-fire. The IDF said that work to destroy terror tunnels in the Gaza Strip would continue despite the truce.
Members of Ansar al-Sharia (Reuters / Stringer)
The Islamist militant group Ansar al-Sharia has declared Benghazi an ‘Islamic Emirate’ after claiming to have taken total control of Libya’s second largest city, seizing military barracks with rockets and ammunition.
The official spokesperson of the extremist group told local Radio Tawhid that “Benghazi has now become an Islamic emirate.”
The announcement has been denounced by pro-government militia forces.
According to news reports from Lower Shabelle, two rival clan militias fought today in the region in which casualties and losses were caused.