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Heavy clashes broke out on Friday between the Yemeni government’s Elite Forces in Shabwa province and tribal gunmen protecting suspected al-Qaeda members in the north-western district of Markha.
Colonel Mohammed Salem Al Bouher, commander of the Elite Forces, told The National that six of his troops and nine of the gunmen were killed in the clashes in a village called Al Hajar.
Myanmar’s security forces have clashed with ethnic rebels in the country’s western Rakhine State bordering Bangladesh, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported on January 2.
The clash happened near Saytaung in Buthidaung township and involved rebels from the Arakan Army (AA) group of the Rakhine, the Buddhist majority in the state.
Ukraine says one of its soldiers has been killed and two others wounded in clashes in the country’s east despite a fresh cease-fire agreement between Kyiv and Russia-backed separatists.
The Defense Ministry said on January 2 that separatist fighters violated a cease-fire three times on January 1 by firing guns, grenade launchers, and mortars.
At least 21 Afghan police officers were killed in three simultaneous Taliban assaults Monday night in northern Afghanistan. Although civilians were nearby, security forces fired artillery rounds to repel the militant advances.
The hours-long attack focused mostly on overtaking oil wells and vehicles near the capital in Sar-e Pol province, officials said, as the Taliban bids to demonstrate power and undermine government control during peace talks to end the 17-year-old war.
Suspected Muslim militants remotely detonated a bomb near the entrance of a mall in the southern Philippines on Monday as people did last-minute shopping ahead of New Year’s Eve celebrations, killing at least two and wounding nearly 30, officials said.
The bomb went off near a baggage counter at the entrance of the South Seas mall in Cotabato city, wounding shoppers, vendors and commuters. Authorities recovered another unexploded bomb nearby as government forces imposed a security lockdown in the city, military and police officials said.