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Fighters linked to an al-Qaeda-affiliated group overran the Syrian town of Azaz near the Turkish border on Wednesday after fighting broke out with Free Syrian Army units, according to local opposition activists.
Divisions within Syrian rebel ranks escalated into open conflict late Wednesday when members of an al-Qaeda-affiliated group clashed with fighters from the Western-backed Free Syrian Army in a town near the Turkish border.
Nigeria’s military said on Wednesday it had killed 150 insurgents, including a commander, in an operation against Islamist group Boko Haram in which 16 of its own forces were also killed.
Violence in northeast Nigeria has intensified over the past two months, as the Islamists fight back against a military operation that president Goodluck Jonathan ordered in May to try to crush their four-year rebellion.
A British defense study showed that about 100,000 foreign-backed militants, fragmented into 1,000 groups, are fighting in Syria against the government and people.
The extracts of the study by defense consultancy IHS Jane’s were published on Monday in The Daily Telegraph.
IHS Jane’s estimates that some 10,000 militants are fighting for groups affiliated with al-Qaeda such as al-Nusra Front and the rest fight for different militant groups.
Security forces have arrested 45 people in an operation against Islamists in a town in Upper Egypt which has witnessed numerous attacks on Christians in recent weeks.
A temporary curfew was imposed in Dalja, Minya governorate, on Monday morning as police and army, accompanied by the air force, descended on the town.
The Philippine military on Monday launched an airstrike at the position of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in Zamboanga City as the fighting entered its second week.
Two MG520 attack helicopters staged the airstrike shortly after a brief lull midday cutting off the silence of the southern skies, unleashing rockets towards the rebels’ defensive positions, the military said.
Nearly 100 Muslim guerrillas who have held scores of people hostage for a week in Zamboanga City have been killed or captured in an offensive to retake rebel-held coastal communities, officials said Sunday.
Army troops and police special forces have regained rebel-held grounds and are pressing an assault deeper into communities in the coastal outskirts of Zamboanga city, where more than 100 Moro National Liberation Front guerrillas are holding an unspecified number of hostages, military spokesman Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala said.
Congolese and UN troops have pushed back the M23 rebel group that had been entrenched in the hills above Goma and the rebels no longer pose a threat to the strategically important city in eastern Congo, the UN peacekeeping chief said Thursday.
Herve Ladsous called the military action a “very significant achievement” that inflicted casualties on the M23 and likely led the rebels to resume talks with the government in neighboring Uganda’s capital, Kampala.