Five Turkish soldiers were killed Tuesday in clashes with Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, Turkey’s defense ministry said. Two other soldiers were wounded in the fighting.

The clashes took place during Turkey’s latest cross-border offensive against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which maintains bases in northern Iraq. Turkey launched its latest offensive, named Operation Claw Lock last month in northern Iraq’s Metina, Zap and Avashin-Basyan regions.

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Several civilians are reportedly fleeing into Uganda following clashes between the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) and March 23 Movement (M23) rebels.

Intelligence sources told SoftPower News on Sunday that heavy fighting between government forces and the rebel group had been ongoing since Saturday.

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Russia’s siege of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol stuttered towards its end on Thursday, with hundreds of fighters still holed up in the Azovstal steel works and some 1,700 who have already surrendered facing an uncertain fate.

A full abandonment of the bunkers and tunnels of the bombed-out plant would end the most destructive siege of a war that began when Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

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Colombia’s last recognised rebel group on Monday announced a 10-day ceasefire to allow presidential elections this month to pass off peacefully.

Colombians head to the ballot box on May 29 for a first election round with leftist former guerrilla Gustavo Petro favoured to win.

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Russia said on Monday that it had agreed to evacuate wounded Ukrainian soldiers from the bunkers below the besieged Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol to a medical facility in the Russian-controlled town of Novoazovsk.

“An agreement has been reached on the removal of the wounded,” the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.

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