Staff Writer With AFP
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Middle East
Syria Jihadist-Regime Clashes Leave 41 Fighters Dead
An Al-Qaeda offshoot led an offensive Monday against regime forces in northwest Syria, sparking clashes that left 19 pro-government fighters and 22 jihadists dead, a war monitor said.
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Asia Pacific
Four Rebels Killed in Second Indian Kashmir Clash in Two Days
Four suspected rebels were killed by government forces in Indian-administered Kashmir on Monday just hours after five militants died in a firefight in the same area.
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Africa
Three Top Jihadists Dominate Sahel After Al-Qaeda Leader Death
Three leaders have been left dominating the jihadist insurgency in the Sahel, following the death of a top al-Qaeda commander in the West African state of Mali last week.
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Africa
Jihadists Kill Six Nigerian Troops: Sources
Jihadists have killed six Nigerian troops in an attack on a military base in northeast Nigeria, army sources said Sunday.
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Middle East
US Launches First Taliban Air Strikes Since Afghan Ceasefire End
The US launched its first air strikes against the Taliban since a rare ceasefire between the insurgents and Afghan forces ended more than a week ago.
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Africa
Libya Government Says Retakes Haftar’s Last Redoubt in West
Libya's UN-recognised government announced another victory in its counter-offensive against Khalifa Haftar, overrunning his last western stronghold.
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Middle East
Pompeo Presses Nations to Fund IS Fight Despite Budget Crunch
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday urged allies to make up a shortfall in funding to defeat the Islamic State movement despite a budget crunch after the devastation of the coronavirus pandemic. The United States and Italy led a meeting of 31 nations on fighting the extremists, held virtually due to precautions to stop the virus. A US raid last year killed the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, shortly after President Donald Trump declared the group that once ruled vast swathes of Syria and Iraq had been defeated on the battlefield. “That said, our fight against ISIS continues, and will for the foreseeable future. We cannot rest,” Pompeo told the conference. “We must continue to root out ISIS cells and networks and provide stabilization assistance to liberated areas in Iraq and Syria,” he said. “It’s true that the pandemic is putting enormous pressure on all of our budgets, but we urge your nations to pledge toward our goal of more than $700 million for 2020.” The funding drive by the coalition, which seeks to bring stability to Iraq and Syria, has raised only $200 million this year as of May 26, a State Department spokesperson said. The United States has pledged …
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Africa
Libya Unity Government Claims Full Control of Tripoli, Suburbs
Libya’s UN-recognised unity government said Thursday that it was back in full control of the capital and its suburbs after more than a year of fighting off an offensive by eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar. “Our heroic forces have full control of Greater Tripoli right up to the city limits,” Mohamad Gnounou, spokesman for the forces of the Government of National Accord (GNA), said in a Facebook post. The announcement came after GNA forces retook the capital’s civilian airport on Wednesday, more than a year after losing it in Haftar’s initial drive on the capital. The airport, in Tripoli’s southern outskirts, had been disused since 2014 when it was heavily damaged in fighting between rival militias. “Our forces are continuing their advance, chasing the terrorist militias from the walls of Tripoli,” said the GNA’s Deputy Defense Minister Salah Namrush. “Some of their commanders are fleeing towards Bani Walid airport,” in the interior 170 kilometers (110 miles) southeast of the capital, he added on Facebook. Footage of GNA troops manning positions held until recently by Haftar’s fighters was widely circulated on Libyan television channels and social media. The fighting for the capital had killed hundreds and forced around 200,000 people to flee. GNA forces, …
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Africa
Thousands Flee Niger Refugee Camp After Jihadist Attack
Thousands of people have fled a camp hosting 20,000 Malian refugees in western Niger after a deadly jihadist attack devastated the site, the United Nations said Wednesday. Around 50 jihadists on motorbikes killed three local leaders, abducted a guard, destroyed communication antennas, and sabotaged the water supply at the Intikane site near the Malian border in a coordinated attack on Monday. Intikane is home to around 20,000 Malian refugees and 15,000 internally displaced Niger citizens — all of whom previously fled their villages due to jihadist violence — as well as the local population. Now many are on the move again, with some 3,000 people fleeing to Tlemces, a site 27 kilometers (43 miles) from Intikane, the UN refugee agency UNHCR in Niamey told AFP. UNHCR official Kourouma Mamady Fatta said the agency was carrying out an assessment of the damage and was trying to get the water supply flowing again. The governor of the Tahoua region, Moussa Abdourahamane, said, “Intikane is losing its population, people are moving towards Tlemces.” The jihadists “attacked the sensitive points of the site — they cut communication lines to isolate the population and they destroyed the sources for drinking water,” he told the national public …
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Africa
Sixteen Dead in New Eastern DR Congo Massacre
Sixteen civilians, five of them children, were killed overnight in a fresh massacre in the eastern DR Congo province of Ituri, a local official and a UN source said on Wednesday. “The toll, which is still provisional, is of 16 people killed by knives or gunfire. The people killed are four men, seven women, and five children all aged under five,” the administrator of Djugu territory, Adel Alingi, told AFP. The toll was separately confirmed by a source in the United Nations’ peacekeeping force, MONUSCO. The attack unfolded at a village in the area of Mambisa, north of the Ituri capital Bunia, the sources said. The authorities attributed it to a notorious ethnic militia called CODECO, for the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo. The organization is mainly drawn from the Lendu ethnic group, who are predominantly farmers and clash repeatedly with the Hema community of traders and herders. Nearly 300 civilians have been killed since the start of the year in attacks blamed on CODECO, while the UN says around 200,000 people have fled their homes. UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, in a visit to Ituri in late January, said “crimes against humanity” had been perpetrated. Tens of thousands …
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