Heavily armed al-Shabaab extremists have stormed a military base in Somalia’s semiautonomous state of Puntland, killing close to 70 people, officials said Thursday. Officials called it the region’s deadliest attack in years, highlighting the twin challenges facing security forces from the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab and the growing presence of fighters linked …

A dawn raid by jihadists on a military camp in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region on Thursday left at least 10 soldiers dead, security officials said. The Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda group, claimed the attack saying it had killed 61 soldiers at the Af-Urur military base close to Golis Mountains, a well-known …

Unknown gunmen on Thursday ambushed a convoy on the main road connecting South Sudan’s capital with the Ugandan border, killing at least 15 people, officials said. Nine others were wounded in the attack on a civilian convoy escorted by the military on the insecure Juba-Nimule highway.

The Chinese Ministry of National Defense (MOD) denied late on June 5 that one People’s Liberation Army (PLA) helicopter violated Indian airspace.

India ruled out any meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif when the two will be in Kazakhstan this week, Indian media report. In early May, Pakistan Prime Minister’s Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz told reporters that if India shows interest, Pakistan would look into …

U.S.-backed fighters gained ground against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the streets of Raqqa on June 7, a day after their months-long offensive finally broke into the jihadists’ Syrian bastion. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia has spent seven months advancing on the city, with …

Germany will pull all of its troops and aircraft from Turkey’s Incirlik airbase, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen announced on June 7. Approximately 270 troops stationed at Incirlik, as well as Tornado reconnaissance jets and a refueling plane, will be moved to Jordan over the next two months. …

Turkey’s parliament has approved a draft bill allowing its troops to be deployed to a Turkish military base in Qatar, an apparent move to support the Gulf Arab country when it faces diplomatic and trade isolation from some of the biggest Middle Eastern powers.

The African Union and the United Nations are proposing major cuts to their joint peacekeeping force in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region, paring down one of the world’s largest and costliest peace operations. A joint report sent to the UN Security Council last month recommends that the ceiling set for military …

The UN force commander in the Central African Republic is calling for hundreds of peacekeepers from the Democratic Republic of Congo to be sent home for sexual abuse, fuel trafficking and poor discipline, according to a confidential memo released Tuesday.