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Local residents in eastern Laghman province on Tuesday announced to step up fight against the Taliban militants at Alisheng and Dawlatshah districts in this province.
Chief of the local cultural youth association Zafar Abbas said local residents started fight against Taliban militants after 2 pm local time today and several villages were cleared off from militants presence during the campaign.
Rebels will intensify attacks inside the Syrian capital and target sensitive security installations in what they call an operation to “liberate Damascus”, a rebel commander said on Tuesday, after three days of fierce fighting in the city.
Colonel Qassem Saadeddine, spokesman of the joint command of the Free Syrian Army inside Syria, told Reuters via Skype that many fighters arrived in Damascus from several provinces 10 days ago to take part in the operation and more would be sent soon.
Ugandan security forces have deployed heavily on the eastern border with Congo, following heavy fighting between rebels and the Congo government forces.
By press time, business at the border town of Bunagana was at a standstill as traffic was not allowed to proceed beyond the border point. Only displaced civilians were allowed to enter Uganda. Congo’s North Kivu province has been swept by violence since March, after hundreds of rebels defected from the army in support of a rebellious general, Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for suspected war crimes.
Heavy clashes between rebels and regular troops have erupted in Damascus in the “most intense” fighting in the
capital since the start of the anti-regime revolt in Syria 16 months ago, a monitoring group has said.
“The regular army fired mortar rounds into several suburbs” where fighters of the Free Syrian Army are entrenched, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday.
“They have never been this intense,” Abdel Rahman told the AFP news agency.
A large number of child soldiers have reportedly been found among 34 government troops being detained by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) at its Laiza headquarters.
The captives were seized by the rebels during battle and are currently in limbo as they do not dare to go back to their families for fear of being arrested under military law.
KIA spokesman La Nan told The Irrawaddy on Friday that his organization would allow the soldiers to return but they are worried about coming to harm or being imprisoned.