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Yemeni officials and medics say a fierce battle between government troops and al-Qaida fighters in the country’s south has killed at least 35 soldiers and 20 militants.
They say Sunday’s fighting erupted in Abyan province, when the militants detonated several car bombs and overran a military post in the Koud region near the provincial capital, Zinjibar. Scores were wounded on both sides and the death toll is likely to rise.
Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday killed at least 60 people across the country, including 47 soldiers who attempted defected in a military airbase in Idlib, the Syrian Network for Human Rights reported on Saturday.
The bodies of the soldiers were then dumped in al-Seeha lake near Idlib by Assad loyalist forces, a local coordination committee from Idlib reported.
A major base of Somalia’s al-Shabaab militants has been captured on the outskirts of the capital by government troops backed by African Union forces.
“This operation is necessary to consolidate the security of Mogadishu,” AU commander Maj Gen Fred Mugisha said as the offensive began.
AU and government forces took control of most of Mogadishu last year.
Puntland forces have seized on Wednesday supplies to Galgala militias linked with al-Shabaab-aligned militants operating in the area of Cal-Madow area north of Bosaso town, security officials said.
Officials of Darwish forces under Puntland state of Somalia said they seized a truck, carrying military equipment and food elements on Wednesday morning near Galgala hideouts before it reached their bases where is largely controlled by fighters loyal to a hard-line cleric Sheik Atom linked with al-Shabaab militants.
South Sudan on Monday said that it signed a peace agreement with the South Sudan Democratic Movement/Army, (SSDM/A), one of the rebel groups formerly under the leadership George Athor Deng Dut, before his death in December last year.
Barnaba Marial Benjamin, South Sudan’s minister of information and broadcasting on Monday announced the signing of the deal with the rebel group, describing it as an important step to resolving conflict in the seven month old country.
BRITAIN is drawing up plans to send hundreds of troops and an extra nuclear sub to the Gulf as tension mounts with Iran.
Defence chiefs are convinced the UK will be swiftly sucked into any new conflict with Tehran’s fanatical regime.
They say it is a matter of WHEN not IF war breaks out - with 18 to 24 months the likely timescale.
The Army, Royal Navy and RAF will have crucial roles if hostilities are triggered by president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s nuclear stand-off with the world.
Colombia’s largest rebel group FARC announced Sunday to release all ten captive members of the security forces and will abandon kidnapping civilians for extortion purposes.
The announcement was made in a statement published on the website of Anncol, a leftist news organization with alleged ties to the rebel group.
The FARC announced “our decision to add the remaining four to the announced decision to release six prisoners of war” and that “from today on we ban the practice” of “the retention of people … in order to finance our struggle.”