Syrian rebels claim they shot down a MiG fighter jet not far from the Syrian-Turkish border on Wednesday. Along with the downing of a military helicopter on Tuesday, it would appear to be one of the first times rebels have successfully used a kind of weapon called a MANPAD, or portable, shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missile that can hit a plane in fight.

The development would mark a turning point in the rebels’ bid to unseat Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Rebels say the Russian-made MiG fighter jet was shot down Wednesday morning near the town of Daarat Azzah, on the road north of the embattled city of Aleppo.

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Three armed Taliban militants were killed and 5 others wounded in combined operation of Afghan and NATO forces in Nahersaraj district of Helmand province.

Fareed Ahmad Farhang spokesman of Helmand security commandment said to BNA, the Afghan and NATO forces conducted operation in Nashersaraj district of Helmand province, in which 3 armed Taliban militants were killed and 5 others wounded.

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The political chief of Congolese rebel group M23 says his forces will leave the captured city of Goma by Friday as a sign of good will, even if the government has not addressed their grievances.

The rebels seized the eastern city last week and have since taken the town of Sake to the west.

Jean-Marie Runiga of M23 told VOA News Tuesday that if regional leaders think the departure will help bring peace, than they will do so by the end of the week. Runiga said even if M23 withdraws it does not mean the group will back down on its demands for foreign groups and the Congolese army to leave the region

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Syrian warplanes have bombed a rebel headquarters near the Turkish border, missing their target but sending hundreds of Syrians fleeing across the frontier.

Monday’s attack on the Free Syrian Army (FSA) base in Atima, two kilometres from the border, came a day before Turkish and NATO officials were due to start assessing where to station surface-to-air missiles close to the 900km border.

Ahmed, an opposition activist who lives within a few blocks of the base, said: “Two Syrian fighter jets came and fired five rockets. Three have hit farm areas and another two hit buildings near the base.”

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Dozen of Algerian jihadists have arrived in the Malian city of Timbuktu to support armed Islamist groups who are imposing an increasingly brutal version of sharia law in the vast northern areas under their control, security sources said Sunday.

The latest influx of foreigners joining the Al-Qaeda linked Islamists was revealed as interim authorities in Bamako postponed a key conference to plan the country’s transition back to democracy and tackle the crisis in the occupied north.

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Spain’s right-leaning government flatly rejected Sunday an offer by armed Basque group ETA to negotiate its disarmament and dissolution.

ETA, blamed for 829 killings in more than four decades of fighting for a Basque homeland, said Saturday it was ready to discuss disarming and disbanding with France and Spain under certain conditions.

The group, which last year said it had abandoned violence, said in a statement on Basque newspaper Gara’s website that one outstanding issue was the transfer of Basque prisoners to jails closer to home.

But Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s Popular Party government refused to consider talks with ETA.

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Basque separatist group ETA may disarm and disband, if able to successfully negotiate the release of prisoners with the Spanish government.

The group has released a statement saying they are also willing to demilitarise the Basque region of Euskadi.

Among others, ETA may want to talk about the release of Izaskun Lesak, a suspected ETA leader arrested in France in October.

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