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Troops in the ongoing offensive against the Boko Haram sect in the North East, on Friday night, killed 53 insurgents, losing six soldiers while repelling an attack on troops’ location in Damboa, Borno State.
This was disclosed in a statement by the Defence Headquarters, DHQ, in Abuja, yesterday, through its Director of Defence Information, DDI, Maj-Gen. Chris Olukolade, adding that a suicide bomber also drove into a checkpoint killing self, a policeman and three vigilante youths in Borno State.
A woman cries near her burning house after shelling in the city of Slovyansk, Donetsk Region, eastern Ukraine, last month. The city of 100,000 has now been retaken from pro-Russian separatists. (AP)
Ukrainian troops have retaken the key stronghold of Slovyansk from pro-Russian forces in a sign that Kiev may be regaining control over the country’s east, months after insurgents swept through the region establishing a self-proclaimed independent republic.
The country’s president, Petro Poroshenko, and a spokesman for the rebels confirmed that the city of 100,000 was back in government hands after a night of fighting. Poroshenko ordered his troops to hoist the Ukrainian flag over Slovyansk’s city council building.
Syrian warplanes carried out at least three airstrikes on the outskirts of Arsal in east Lebanon Friday, killing a 12-year-old boy and wounding five others, a security source told The Daily Star.
The Lebanese Army released a brief statement confirming that the Syrian air force attacked the area twice, at 8:55 and 10:15 a.m.
The Israeli military mobilized troops around the Gaza Strip on Thursday after Palestinian militants there fired some 30 rockets at southern Israel over 24 hours, three of which hit homes in the border town of Sderot, causing property damage but no injuries.
Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said that despite the mobilization, Israel was not interested in further escalating the violent exchanges with Gaza that have been building for more than two weeks.
Saudi Arabia has deployed 30,000 soldiers to its border with Iraq after Iraqi soldiers withdrew from the area, Al-Arabiya television said on Thursday.
The Kingdom shares an 800-km border with Iraq.
Rebel groups from northern and eastern Syria demanded aid Wednesday from the country’s exiled opposition to allow them to fight against the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) group.
“We, the leaders of the brigades and battalions… give the National Coalition, the (opposition) interim government, the (rebel) Supreme Military Council and all the leading bodies of the Syrian revolution a week to send reinforcements and complete aid,” the statement said.
The Al-Qaeda breakaway Islamic State of Iraq and Syria captured a key Syrian town near the Iraq border from other rebels on Tuesday and advanced toward a stronghold of its main jihadi rivals, an activist group said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Boukamal fell to the militants early Tuesday following days of battles between the group and other factions led by the Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate.