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At least six people have killed and 7 wounded in new and heavy fights yesterday night in Mogadishu between Transitional Federal Government (TFG) soldiers and al-Shabaab rebels in Hodan district.
Local witnesses said.
An government official said that “fights started when integralist rebels attacked one of their positions in Hodan end in neighboring districts.
Two soldiers of the Burmese Army were killed and three injured, while carrying ballot boxes from Taung Suan to Chaung Sone village, when they were ambushed by members of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) at 10:40 am on October 26.
The KNLA battalion No. 16 ambushed the column, which had 60 soldiers from LIB 405 under the MOC 8, led by Lt. Col. Myo Myint Aung. The column carrying ballot boxes for the elections on November 7 was attacked between Ar Palone and Hlaing Thayar village.
“The KNLA battalion No. 16 confirmed that two soldiers of the Burmese Army were killed and three injured. We often attack them, when they patrol this area, if we get a chance. I heard there was another gun battle on October 26 morning. We don’t have the exact information on causalities,” Maj. Saw Htel Nay from KNLA battalion No. 16 told KIC.
Though KNLA confirmed that five Burmese Army soldiers were injured in this attack, a Kyar Inn Seik Gyi local said nine soldiers were wounded.
Sudanese government forces and rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) clashed today in South Darfur state for the first time since several months, the two parties said.
The fighting took place at Khor Taan, 50km east of South Darfur state capital, Nyala. None of the two belligerents provided the details of human causalities but JEM claimed capturing 13 vehicles.
JEM “captured 13 vehicles and destroyed many more. Three of JEM fighters were injured in the combat, none of them seriously,” said JEM military spokesperson Ali Alwafi.
The rebel group said clashes erupted when the government troops attacked one of their mobile units while the Sudanese police said the rebels ambushed a commercial convoy escorted by its forces.
The Algerian government has announced it will arm residents of remote areas to help them fight Islamist militants.
Interior Minister Daho Ould Kablia said the decision was made by the defence minister but would be carried out by his ministry.
He said civilians in some areas had asked for weapons “to fight terrorism”.
A North African branch of al-Qaeda is active in Algeria and nearby countries, and has carried out a number of attacks and kidnappings recently.
Nato says its forces in Afghanistan have killed at least 19 Taliban fighters who tried to storm a combat outpost under cover of darkness.
The attack happened at a base in Paktika province, bordering Pakistan.
The militants are reported to have attacked from all directions, using rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
Meanwhile, President Hamid Karzai has criticised the first joint operation by Russian and US agents to destroy drug laboratories in Afghanistan.
Mr Karzai said Thursday’s raid had taken place without his government’s permission and was a clear violation of Afghan sovereignty.
A Russian official said about 70 military personnel and counter-narcotics agents were involved, and that they had destroyed a “major hub” about 5km (three miles) from the Pakistani border, near Jalalabad.
Armenia and Azerbaijan can come to an agreement on the principles of Nagorno-Karabakh issue settlement before the OSCE summit scheduled for December, reported Russian President Dmitri Medvedev who was the mediator of the October 27 meeting of the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“The issue of the settlement principles is yet to be solved to later become the basis of the peace treaty. Nevertheless, we have come a long way which gives a good ground for hope that if the sides work efficiently during this month, basic principles of settlement could be reconciled before the OSCE summit in Kazakhstan on December 1-2,” says Medvedev.
The main practical and political outcome of the Astrakhan meeting has become the agreement between the two presidents to exchange war prisoners.
“The parties have agreed on a joint statement, which is of humanitarian character but is a very important one. It is a special declaration providing for immediate exchange of war prisoners and bodies of those who died [in recent skirmishes on the line of contact] as confidence-building measures,” said Medvedev.
The militant Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab paraded newly trained fighters in the capital, Mogadishu, on Thursday, the Somali radio station Shabelle reported.
“These forces are our reserve and they will break the enemy’s back,” said Sheikh Ali Mohamud Ali Dhere, a spokesman for al-Shabaab.
Top commanders of the group addressed the new fighters at the Maslah compound in northeast Mogadishu.
The spokesman said that the new unit is named after Sheikh Mustafa Abu Yazid, a member of al Qaeda killed in a suspected U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan this year.