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Syrian rebels attacked two military airports in the northern province of Idlib on Thursday, opposition activists said, dpa reported.
The rebels damaged at least five helicopters and more than six F16 fighter jets in the Taftanaz and Abu al-Zouhour airports.
Government forces were shelling areas around the airports from early Thursday, according to the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Three Georgian troops died and five were wounded in a clash with “a squad of saboteurs” during an operation in the Kakheti region, close to the Dagestan section of the Georgian-Russian border, the Georgian Interior Ministry said in a statement released shortly before 4pm local time on Wednesday.
Two of the killed Georgian troops were from the Interior Ministry’s special purpose unit and one was an army corporal, who served as a doctor with the Defense Ministry’s special operations forces
“11 members of the armed group have been liquidated,” it said.
Thousands of Kachin civilians living in villages in Township, the center of Burma’s lucrative jade industry, have been forced to flee as Burmese government troops mount an intensifying offensive against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in the area.
Fresh clashes that began on Monday have driven people from more than 20 villages to take shelter in 23 churches, monasteries and relief centers in the town of Hpakant, sources said. Local residents estimate the number of refugees at around 6,000, although police officials could not confirm that figure.
Somali military officials told media Monday afternoon that the city was captured by the allied forces after al-Shabaab retreated.
“The district of Merca is in the control of Somali and AMISOM forces and there was no resistance when our forces entered the city,” said General Abdikarim Yusuf Adan.
According to local residents, before the al-Shabaab agents fled the city they had killed four people, it is unclear why they were killed.
A Syrian military helicopter went down in a ball of fire Monday after it was apparently hit during fighting between government forces and rebels in the capital Damascus, activists said.
A video posted on the Internet showed the chopper engulfed in flames and spinning out of control shortly before it hit the ground amid bursts of gunfire near a mosque. Rebels shout “Allahu Akbar!” or God is great, as the helicopter goes down. The authenticity of the video could not be independently verified.