About 17 Taliban militants were killed while 16 others detained in operations carried out by Afghan security forces within the last 24 hours, the country’s Interior Ministry said Monday morning.

“Afghan National Police, army and the National Directorate for Security (NDS) launched several anti-terrorism joint operations in Nangarhar, Laghman, Zabul, Wardak, Khost, Paktika and Helmand provinces, killing 17 armed Taliban members and detaining 16 others over the past 24 hours,” the ministry said in a statement providing daily operational updates.

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Suspected Islamic militants have shot dozens of Christian villagers and fatally attacked others with knives in an area of northeastern Nigerian where the military has been bombing extremists out of forest hideouts.

Local government chairman Maina Ularamu says he has reports of more than 50 people killed in Saturday’s attack on Izghe village in Borno state.

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Syrian troops pressed an offensive near Lebanon on Saturday, heavily bombarding a rebel-held town and forcing many residents to flee to safety across the border, activists said.

The violence came as an activist group said the death toll in the three-year Syrian conflict has reached 140,000. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the figure includes civilians, rebels, members of the military, pro-government militiamen and foreign fighters.

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Two frontline posts controlled by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) that severed as protection for the group’s Laiza headquarters were seized by Burma government troops after heavy clashes on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Ja Ing Yang and Hka U, both posts held by KIA battalion 18 under the group’s 5th Brigade, were attacked and then captured by the Burma Army, according to KIA frontline officers who declined to be quoted by name.

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A Malian intelligence official confirmed that 30 people were killed near the Mali-Niger border after a clash pitting armed villagers against members of an al-Qaida-linked rebel group.

The official, who could not be named because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said the fighting erupted overnight between Monday and Tuesday.

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Boko Haram gunmen have killed 43 people and razed scores of homes when they stormed two villages in northeast Nigeria, firing indiscriminately on fleeing civilians.

Heavily armed Islamist extremists in 4WD trucks attacked a mosque, markets and government buildings in a massive assault on Konduga village in the troubled state of Borno on Tuesday.

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Militants in Iraq attacked military barracks in a remote area in the country’s north and killed 15 troops overnight, officials said Tuesday, the latest blow to the government’s efforts to achieve stability.

According to two police officials, an unknown number of gunmen staged the assault on the barracks in Ayn al-Jahish village outside the northern city of Mosul late on Monday.

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