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Seven people were killed when communist insurgents attacked a rural army outpost in the southern Philippines, the military said on Saturday.
Six rebels and a progovernment militiaman were killed while another militiaman was wounded during the five-hour gun battle on Friday, said the military, adding that the attack only ended after they deployed helicopter gun ships.
A key commander of the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army was killed recently by Syria’s al-Qaeda rebels, a sign the opposition to the Bashar al-Assad regime is fracturing and Islamist rebels are on the rise.
Kamal Hamami, the FSA commander, was killed as he went to a meeting of al-Qaeda-backed rebels to discuss joint operations against the Syrian army, a U.S. official said, confirming Middle East press reports.
At least 29 people have been killed in fighting between Kurdish and Al-Nusra Front fighters in northern Syria in the past two days, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday.
At least 19 Al-Nusra Front fighters and 10 Kurds have been killed since the day before yesterday in clashes in the oil region of Hassakeh,” the NGO said.
Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos has met 30 rebels of the ELN, the country’s second largest armed group, who laid down their arms.
Santos called the development “a great step towards peace”.
The ELN, or National Liberation Army, is not part of the peace talks with Colombia’s largest rebel group, the FARC, but its leaders have expressed interest in joining the negotiations.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has confirmed the death in a US drone strike of its deputy leader Saeed al-Shehri, whose killing has been announced a number of times by Yemeni authorities.
“Sheikh Saeed al-Shehri, aka Abu Sufyan al-Azdi, was killed in a US drone strike,” said a leader in Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Ibrahim al-Rubaish in a video posted on Islamist websites Wednesday.