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A force that controls key oil terminals in eastern Libya said it had captured the town of Ben Jawad from ISIS militants on Monday east of their stronghold of Sirte.
Spokesman Ali al-Hassi said four Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) fighters had been killed and 16 wounded in fierce clashes in the coastal town. The PFG claim to be in control of Ben Jawad could not be independently verified.
At least 57 Afghan policemen were killed and another 37 wounded during two days of clashes in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, said officials on Monday.
The 505 Bost zone police commander in Helmand, Maj. Gen. Asmatullah Dawlatzai told media that the clashes that erupted between security forces and Taliban rebels two days ago were still underway in Greshk and Nad Ali districts of the province.
Iraqi special forces began a ground assault on the city of Fallujah Monday as part of an offensive launched a week ago to seize back the city from Islamic State militants.
Iraqi officials and commanders gave different accounts about the developments. Early Monday, officials said counterterrorism forces advanced into a southern neighborhood inside Fallujah, which would mark their first entrance into the city after days of fighting on the outskirts.
Fierce fighting between government forces and Shiite rebels in south Yemen on Sunday claimed the lives of 48 fighters — 28 insurgents and 20 soldiers — a senior military officer said.
“A total of 28 Houthis (Shiite rebels) and 20 of our men were killed in the fighting, which continued into the evening,” General Misfer al-Harithi, who commands the army’s 19th Infantry Battalion, told AFP.
The Philippines military says 22 members of a Daesh-linked group have been killed in a series of clashes with government troops in the predominantly Muslim south in the past three days.
Military spokesman Maj Filemon Tan Jr. said in a statement Saturday that the deaths occurred after the “beheading of two civilians in the area” of Lanao del Sur.