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Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces helped Iraqi troops regain control over most of Tikrit, according to Iranian security sources.
Confronted by the threat of Sunni Muslim forces overtaking Shiite-dominated Iraq, Iran responded to aid its Arab ally and sent Revolutionary Guard fighters to Iraq, according to Iranian security sources.
The Ukrainian government has announced its forces have retaken the southern city of Mariupol from pro-Russian separatist gunmen, and in heavy fighting has also retaken control of a long stretch of the border with Russia.
Islamist rebel fighters captured two more Iraqi towns overnight in a relentless sweep south towards the capital Baghdad in a campaign to recreate a medieval caliphate carved out of fragmenting Iraq and Syria.
U.S. President Barack Obama threatened military strikes against the radical Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on Thursday, highlighting the gravity of ISIL’s threat to redraw borders in an oil-rich region with the risk of any new entity turning into a launch-pad for attacks on Western interests.
Heavy fighting broke out on Wednesday between Rwandan and Congolese troops on the border between the two neighbours, which are locked in a decades-long conflict.
The two sides exchanged machine gunfire at dawn after what the Congolese army said was the abduction of one of its soldiers by Rwandan troops who had crossed the border into the restive province of North Kivu.
Al-Qaida-inspired militants seized effective control Wednesday of Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, expanding their offensive closer to the Iraqi capital as soldiers and security forces abandoned their posts following clashes with the insurgents.
Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant took control a day earlier of much of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, in a major blow to the authority of the country’s Shiite government. An estimated half a million residents fled the economically important city.
A photograph made available 12 April 2012 shows Tuareg rebel fighters moving through northern Mali on a vehicle carrying weapons allegedly used in the Libya conflict near Kidal, Mali, 16 October 2011. Picture: EPA / STR
Three northern Malian rebel groups signed an accord in Algiers pledging to work for peace through inclusive talks in Mali.
The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, the High Council for the Unity of Azawad and the Arab Movement of Azawad signed the Algiers Declaration pledging their “good faith” to strengthen the process of reconciliation through dialogue, said an Algerian government statement Tuesday.
Insurgents took control of Iraq’s northernmost city Mosul in the early hours of this morning; this comes after four days of fighting in the city which was attacked by militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Fighters overran the entire western bank of the city overnight after Iraqi soldiers and police apparently fled their posts, in some instances discarding their uniforms as they sought to escape the advance of the militants.