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The French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, said yesterday it was “probable” that foreign powers would intervene in Mali, where militants linked to al-Qa’ida control significant territory.
“At one moment or another there will probably be the use of force,” Mr Fabius said. He noted that intervention would be African-led but supported by international forces.
The rebel faction Revolution Leadership Council of Hama (RLC-H) is claiming another new “massacre” today in the village of Tremseh in Hama Province. After early reports of fighting in the area, the RLC-H put the death toll at “more than 250,” almost all civilians.
The rebels said that helicopter gunships first attacked the village, and that “pro-government militias” attacked later, carrying out mass executions and piling the bodies in front of the local mosque. The rebel Syrian National Council (SNC) demanded UN Security Council action.
UN and Democratic Republic of Congo government troops have bombarded rebel positions in the country’s strife-torn eastern region of North-Kivu.
Three helicopters belonging to the United Nations DR Congo mission - MONUSCO - and two gunships of the DR Congo army (FARDC) were seen and explosions were heard on Thursday around the villages of Nkokwe and Bukima, where rebels from the M23 group are thought to have some positions.
Officials from the UN and the army confirmed attacks were underway, as did the mutineers.
High-ranking al-Shabaab leaders and regular fighters based in the Galgala Mountain range are “rapidly defecting” from the organisation, according to Lieutenant General Muhidin Ahmed Muse, second in command of Puntland police.
Muse declined to disclose how many al-Shabaab members have defected so far, but said the police have already made public some of those currently in custody and will announce others soon.
In recent months, several battles have erupted between Puntland armed forces and al-Shabaab in the Galgala Mountain Range, 60 kilometres south-west of Bosaso.
Pakistani islamist militants threat new attacks on military bases and government offices in central province of Punjab to protest against new supplies to Nato troops in Afghanistan.