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Nigeria’s military claims it has destroyed the headquarters of Boko Haram in Gwoza, a town in northeast Nigeria. It was not possible to verify the victory that comes the day before presidential elections.
The official Twitter account of the Nigerian Defence Headquarters announced “FLASH: Troops this morning captured Gwoza destroying the Headquarters of the Terrorists self-styled Caliphate.'’
The commander of Iraq’s military operations in Salahuddin province says government forces have launched the final phase of an offensive to recapture the Islamic State-held city of Tikrit.
Lt. Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi tells The Associated Press Thursday that Iraqi troops and special forces have begun moving toward the center of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown.
Saudi Arabia and Gulf region allies have launched military operations including air strikes in Yemen, officials said, to counter Iran-allied forces besieging the southern city of Aden where the Yemeni president had taken refuge.
Gulf broadcaster Al-Arabiya TV reported that the Kingdom was contributing as many as 150,000 troops and 100 warplanes to the operations.
Rebel forces on Wednesday captured parts of the port city of Aden and a nearby Yemeni air base recently evacuated by U.S. forces, officials in the country said, with one rebel spokesman claiming that Yemen’s president fled Aden as his opponents advanced.
The rebels late Wednesday morning captured al-Anad air base, an installation that the last Yemen-based contingent of U.S. special operations forces evacuated over the weekend because of the deteriorating security situation in the country, said Mohammed AbdulSalam, a spokesman for the Houthi rebels.
Islamist militants Boko Haram have snatched at least 500 children from a town in northern Nigeria, according to locals.
Residents in the town of Damasak, freed earlier this month (March 2015) by troops from nearby Chad and Niger, told the news agency Reuters how militants had earlier rounded up women and children.