Sunday, October 6, 2013
Tuareg separatists said on Saturday they were rejoining the peace process in northern Mali, just over a week after they pulled out and accused Bamako of not respecting the terms of a truce signed in June.
The three separatist groups, including the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, or MNLA, rebels, made the announcement after Malian authorities released 23 insurgents last week to comply with the terms of the ceasefire signed in Ouagadougou.
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Saturday, October 5, 2013
Somalia’s Islamist militia al-Shabaab said on Saturday that a dawn raid at its strongholds in the small town of Barawe in the south of the country was carried out by British and Turkish special forces.
The commander of the British force, it said, was killed during the attack and four other SAS operatives were critically wounded. One Turkish soldier was also wounded, according to a statement by Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al-Shabaab’s military operation spokesman.
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A Spanish anarchist group has claimed responsibility for setting off an explosive device in a cathedral, saying it was because of the church’s alleged links with Spain’s fascist past.
The Mateo Morral Comando posted the claim on an anarchist Internet forum Thursday, a day after a device exploded in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pilar in the northeastern city of Zaragoza while people were in the church, which Gen. Francisco Franco visited several times during his dictatorship. No one was injured and little damage was done.
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Friday, October 4, 2013
Islamist rebel groups in Syria have signed a joint statement asking al-Qaeda fighters in the north to pull back from their confrontation with another rebel faction, underscoring the gradual emergence of a new, Salafist-leaning middle ground within the disparate ranks of the armed opposition.
Six factions, including Ahrar al-Sham and the recently-formed Jaish al-Islam coalition, called on the hardline Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (Isis) and the local Northern Storm Brigade to cease fighting in Azaz and settle their differences in an Islamic court.
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Thursday, October 3, 2013
The attack began Thursday with a suicide bomber detonating a car bomb outside the compound of militant commander Nabi Hanfi, followed by militants launching an assault with guns.
The attack killed at least 15 people.
Hanfi, who reportedly survived the attack, was the leader of an anti-Taliban militia he formed after breaking away from the Taliban in 2009. He had been battling the Pakistani Taliban in the Orakzai tribal area and had been supported by the Pakistani government, local sources reported.
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