The two main rebel movements in Somalia have said they plan to merge to defeat the weak, UN-backed government, according to a senior official from one of the groups.

Sheik Mohamed Osman Arus, the Islamic Party’s head of operations, told The Associated Press news agency that his militia will join forces with the al-Qaeda linked al-Shabaab group and fight under al-Shabaab’s name.

Fighters from the Islamic Party have been defeated several times by al-Shabaab, including a battle to control the port city of Kismayo, one of the largest cities in the country, and now a major base for al-Shabaab.

Arus however denied the merger was a face-saving tactic for his group, saying the planned union is “a bonus for the Mujahideen and a bane to the invaders and mercenaries”.

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http://english.aljaz … 219202047178447.html

Allies of presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara urged Ivorians to join a new march through Abidjan to seize the state broadcaster’s building on Friday, raising fears of more violence in a dispute over last month’s election.

A failed attempt by Ouattara’s camp to occupy the building on Thursday left at least 10 protesters dead as they clashed with security forces armed with live rounds, while pro-Ouattara forces waged a brief gun battle with forces loyal to incumbent Laurent Gbagbo in central Abidjan.

The United Nations, Washington, African states and others have called on Gbagbo to stand down after the November 28 poll they say was won by Ouattara, but which Gbagbo insists was rigged by rebels who still hold the north after a 2002-2003 civil war.

The News:
http://www.news24.co … Ivory-Coast-20101217

Two suicide bombers blew themselves up near a mosque in southeastern Iran on Wednesday, killing at least 38 people at a Shiite mourning ceremony, state media reported.

The attack took place outside the Imam Hussein Mosque in the port city of Chahbahar, near the border with Pakistan, the official IRNA news agency said.

The bombers targeted a group of worshippers at a mourning ceremony a day before Ashoura, which commemorates the seventh century death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein, one of Shiite Islam’s most beloved saints.

Southeastern Iran is home to an armed Sunni militant group, Jundallah, or Soldiers of God, which has waged sporadic attacks to fight alleged discrimination against the area’s Sunni minority in overwhelmingly Shiite Iran.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the use of multiple suicide attackers to target Shiite worshippers is a tactic the group has employed in the past.

One of the attackers detonated a bomb outside the mosque and the other struck from inside a crowd of worshippers, state TV reported.

The News:
http://www.breitbart … 9H380&show_article=1

Minni Minnawi, the only Darfur faction leader to have signed the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) with the Sudanese government, has declared the failure of the 2006 deal. The announcement deals another blow to Khartoum, which faces the possibility of the southern portion of the country seceding in an upcoming poll.

On Sunday, Minnawi accused the government of failing to implement the Darfur agreement, saying that he is ready to do battle.

Minnawi, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) faction leader, secured several official titles after he signed the peace accord with Khartoum.

But he has abandoned his government-allocated office in Khartoum where he had been serving as “senior assistant” to President Omar al-Bashir.

He has since moved to Juba, the capital of the South Sudan, the autonomous part that is hoping to become an independent country in the upcoming referendum on January 9.

The government declared last week that Minnawi, its one-time partner was now an “enemy,” and closed his Khartoum office.

Southerners “reject the policy of this [Khartoum] government” and will choose secession next month, Minnawi predicted, leaving behind northern Sudan as a “failed state.”

Clashes

Two people were killed in fighting between Minnawi’s forces and Sudanese troops in Khor Abeche, a southern Darfur village, on Friday and Saturday.

Kemal Saiki, the spokesman for a joint UN and African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, said one person was killed and four were wounded in Friday’s fighting.

The News:
http://english.aljaz … 121364520272117.html

Six american soldiers were killed and more than a dozen American and Afghan soldiers were wounded on Sunday morning when a van packed with explosives detonated beside a small joint outpost in southern Afghanistan.

The soldiers were at a new strong point in a small mud-walled building near the village of Sangsar, north of the Arghandab River, when the bomber drove up to one of the building’s walls and exploded his charge at about 9 a.m.

The blast was easily audible roughly 8 miles away, and sent a dusty mushroom cloud towering over the farmland.

The explosion blasted a large hole in the thick wall, causing the roof to collapse on soldiers inside. Other soldiers quickly arrived and clawed and pulled at the waist-deep rubble to free the buried troops.

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http://www.nytimes.c … _r=1&ref=global-home

At least nine militants were killed in clashes with security forces in the northwestern valley of Swat and in the Mohmand tribal region on Saturday, officials said.

Security forces killed five militants in an exchange of fire in Swat, government officials said.

The army says the valley has been largely cleared after a military operation launched in April, 2009.

Separately, security forces killed four militants in a clash that erupted after insurgents attacked a military check post in Mohmand, senior government official Amjad Ali Khan said.

The News:
http://www.dawn.com/ … mohmand-clashes.html

Representatives of two ethnic armed groups traveled to Loi Tai Leng, headquarters of the Shan State Army-South (SSA-South), this week to meet with its leader for discussions aimed at expanding a new alliance of ethnic armies opposed to Burma’s ruling regime, according to a source close to the SSA-South.
The representatives, from the Karenni National Progressive party (KNPP) and a Lahu armed group, discussed the alliance with SSA-South leader Lt-Gen Yawd Serk during festivities to mark the Shan New Year, the source said on Wednesday.

“They mainly talked about military collaboration and analyzed the current political situation,” the source said, adding that other groups unable to send representatives to the gathering sent New Year’s greetings to the SSA-South.

The source said that further discussions may be held based on the outcome of the meeting at Loi Tai Leng.

The SSA-South is not part of an ethnic alliance formed on the Thai-Burmese border on Nov. 5, but may join if the ongoing negotiations are successful.

The current members of the alliance are the KNPP, the Chin National Front, the Kachin Independence Army, the New Mon State Party, the Karen National Union and the Shan State Army-North.

The News:
http://www.burmanet. … -south-headquarters/