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The commander of Syria’s rebels confirms they have received new weapons, giving his forces more power in battles against government troops and Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon.
Gen. Salim Idris refused to say in an interview with Al-Jazeera TV Friday where the weapons came from.
At least three civilian houses belonging to Marip Brang, Ndup Hkun Hpung and Jinghpaw La of Wing Seng village have been hit by Burmese army’s 60 mm mortar shells at Htingnu quarter in Mungpaw in northern Shan State on June 18. No human casualties have been reported as villagers have fled to safe locations. But the mortar shells destroyed houses and killed at least 4 domestic pigs.
Battles continue in northern Shan State between Kachin Independence Army and Burmese Government Army despite both sides agreed to de-escalate military tension in the last meeting in May. A battle took place between Kachin people militia (MHH) troops from section 2 of KIA’s 36th Battalion and Burmese army’s 128th Light Infantry Regiment at Hu Bang bridge located between Loi Sa and Ying Seng village in northern Shan State on June 18 at 12:10 pm. The battle lasted for about an hour and no casualties have been reported from both sides.
Mali signed a ceasefire deal with Tuareg separatist rebels on Tuesday, paving the way for government troops to return to the northern, rebel-held town of Kidal before a presidential election next month.
At the heart of a region plagued by poverty and Islamic militancy, Mali won a 3.25 billion euros ($4.35 billion) Western aid package last month aimed at shoring up democracy and helping it recover from a coup and an al-Qaeda insurgency.
U.S. officials say they will sit down with the Taliban “within days” to begin the “first step on a long road” toward ending the 12-year-old war in Afghanistan.
The announcement came as the Taliban opened their first office on June 18 in Doha and announced its willingness to open peace talks with the Afghan government. Negotiations over the opening of the office lasted more than two years.
Some 80 thousand military forces trained by Hizbullah are preparing to launch a ground offensive to recapture Syria’s commercial city of Aleppo, according to a report in the UK-based Sunday Times.
A Hizbullah commander said the fighters belonging to Syria’s National Defense Force (NDF) have been taught “to fight street by street.”
The fighters were also trained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the newspaper reported.
Iran will send 4,000 Revolutionary Guard troops to Syria to fight alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces, The Independent reported on Sunday.
The decision to send soldiers to Syria was taken last week prior to Friday’s Iranian presidential election which saw cleric Hassan Rohani defeat a number of more conservative candidates.
At least 25 people were killed in troubled southwest Pakistan on Saturday when militants blew up a bus carrying women students and attacked a hospital treating survivors, officials said.
A bomb attack on a bus in Quetta, capital of the restive Baluchistan province, killed 14 women students, and another 11 people died in a blast at a city hospital around 90 minutes later.