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Syria’s army and its allies have broken a three-year rebel siege of two Shia towns in northwest Syria, the government and rebel groups said, cutting off a main supply route to nearby Turkey.
The breakthrough comes after days of rapid military gains north of the major city of Aleppo, with Russian air strikes playing a key role in the advance.
Three soldiers were killed in separate encounters with the leftist New People’s Army (NPA) in southern Philippine province of Compostela Valley, local military said Thursday.
Rhyan Batchar, public affairs office chief of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, said that the operating troops of the 46th Infantry Battalion engaged the leftist rebels belonging to Pulang Bagani Command 3 of the Southern Mindanao Regional Committee in Pantukan town on Wednesday.
Egyptian security forces killed two suspected Islamist militants during clashes in the upscale Cairo district of Maadi on Wednesday, security sources said.
Egypt is trying to clamp down on Islamist militants who stepped up attacks after the army toppled president Mohammed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013. They have mostly targeted soldiers and police, but also attacked civilians.
Dozens are reported dead in renewed Ethnic clashes in Ethiopia.
Officials say the Western Ethiopian region of Gambella recorded a good number of the deaths as tension hit rocket heights among two groups.
The Nigerian army has confirmed that pro-Biafra separatists have hijacked a merchant ship and are threatening to blow it up unless the group’s detained leader, Nnamdi Kanu, is released.
Kanu was arrested last October and put on trial for treason by the Nigerian government. Kanu’s Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group has led agitations for the secession of eastern Nigeria to become an independent nation called Biafra.