Islamic extremists have seized control of the strategic town of Douentza, moving much closer to government-held territory in central Mali.

Residents say that early on Saturday morning, a convoy of pick-up trucks carrying bearded men entered the town, about 800 kilometres northeast of the capital, Bamako.

Although far from the capital, Douentza is only 190km from Mopti, which marks the line-of-control held by the Malian military.

Islamist leader Oumar Ould Hamaha said the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (known by the French acronym MUJAO) had seized Douentza after a brief standoff with the local self-defence militia, which formerly controlled the town.

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Eight armed insurgents were killed and tens other wounded in combined operation of Afghan and NATO forces in the Moqor district of Badghis province.

Sharafuddin Majidi spokesman of Badghis governor said to BNA, the national army and NATO forces conducted combined operation in the Abshara village, Moqor district where armed rebels were gathered and wanted to carry out terrorist activities.

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Syrian rebels launched deadly attacks on the military Saturday in a campaign increasingly targeting its air power, as President Bashar Assad’s traditional ally Russia said it was “naive” to expect him not to fight back.

Rebel fighters captured the main air defense building in Albu Kamal on the Iraqi border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Right said, adding that “preliminary reports” suggested they had seized ground-to-air missiles that could boost their ability to down government aircraft.

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Georgian troops remain in an area close to the Russian border in the Kakheti region where, according to the officials, three servicemen and 11 suspected militants died in an armed clash on August 29.

The last time when the Interior Ministry provided update about the ongoing operation was late afternoon on Wednesday when it said that six remaining gunmen were “surrounded” by the Georgian troops.

Secretary of Georgian National Security Council, Giga Bokeria, said late on Wednesday that the remaining group of gunmen was “localized”.

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Syrian rebels attacked two military airports in the northern province of Idlib on Thursday, opposition activists said, dpa reported.

The rebels damaged at least five helicopters and more than six F16 fighter jets in the Taftanaz and Abu al-Zouhour airports.

Government forces were shelling areas around the airports from early Thursday, according to the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

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Three Georgian troops died and five were wounded in a clash with “a squad of saboteurs” during an operation in the Kakheti region, close to the Dagestan section of the Georgian-Russian border, the Georgian Interior Ministry said in a statement released shortly before 4pm local time on Wednesday.

Two of the killed Georgian troops were from the Interior Ministry’s special purpose unit and one was an army corporal, who served as a doctor with the Defense Ministry’s special operations forces

“11 members of the armed group have been liquidated,” it said.

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Thousands of Kachin civilians living in villages in Township, the center of Burma’s lucrative jade industry, have been forced to flee as Burmese government troops mount an intensifying offensive against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in the area.

Fresh clashes that began on Monday have driven people from more than 20 villages to take shelter in 23 churches, monasteries and relief centers in the town of Hpakant, sources said. Local residents estimate the number of refugees at around 6,000, although police officials could not confirm that figure.

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