The pro-Somali government forces of Ahlu Sunna Waljam’a (ASWJ) backed by Ethiopian troops have taken full control of a strategic town in central Somalia after Al-Shabaab fighters vacated the town following no heavy battles, an official confirmed.

Heavily armed Ethiopian troops along with Ahlu Sunna soldiers chased away hundreds of al-Shabaab fighters from El-Bur town in Galgadud region, centralsomalia, and seized the town late on Monday afternoon.

Sheik Ahmed (Ilka-ase), the deputy chairman of executive council for Ahlu Sunna, told Shabelle Media by phone while he was in El-Bur that al-Shabaab fighters abandoned the town without any bloody clashes on Monday as columns of Ethiopian and Somali forces advanced.

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A one-hour shootout took place in Shan State South, when Burma Army troops attacked a small outpost of the Shan State Army (SSA) North on the Nampang, a tributary of the Salween, on Wednesday, 21 March, according to an SSA source.

“They retreated with casualties (we don’t know how many),” said the SSA officer. “The outpost was reinforced afterward.”

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Fifteen rebel Kurds, all of them women, were killed in fighting with Turkish security forces in the southeast of the country, the Turkish interior ministry has said.

The clashes took place in a rural area of Bitlis province, a centre of the armed rebellion being waged by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), according to a statement carried by the official Anatolia news agency on Saturday.

A local security source said the Kurd separatist movement had a number of women-only units and that one of these had been wiped out.

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In the face of aggression from the United States or Israel, Iran will attack to defend itself, Iran’s most powerful figure, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday.

“We do not have nuclear weapons and we will not build them but in the face of aggression from the enemies, whether from America or the Zionist regime, to defend ourselves we will attack on the same level as the enemies attack us,” Khamenei said live on television.

“Americans are making a grave mistake if they think by making threats they will destroy the Iranian nation,” he said in his annual speech to mark Nowruz, the Iranian New Year.

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Navy ships have shelled suspected Al Qaeda positions in the southern province of Abyan, killing 29 militants, military and security officials said on Thursday.

They said the rocket and artillery barrage, spread out over a 24-hour period that ended early Thursday, struck alleged Al Qaeda targets around the city of Zinjibar, Abyan’s provincial capital.

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Soldiers stormed state television and announced early Thursday that they had seized control of the country, dissolving all of its institutions due to the nation’s mishandling of an insurgency in the north.

On national television, a group of about 20 soldiers were shown in fatigues crowding around a desk facing the camera. They introduced themselves as the National Committee for the Reestablishment of Democracy and the Restoration of the State, or CNRDR.

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Disgruntled soldiers have stormed state TV and radio in Mali’s capital and cut off broadcasts in a growing fallout over a northern rebellion where Tuareg separatists are besting the military.

Soldiers say Defense Minister Gen. Sadio Gassama was visiting a military camp near the presidential palace in Bamako on Wednesday when unhappy young troopers started firing into the air. They then stoned the general’s car, forcing him to leave the camp in haste.

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