BEIRUT (AP) — First came the blast, followed by heavy black smoke and cars on fire. Bloodied casualties lay on the ground and ambulances rushed to the scene. It all looked too familiar, but it wasn’t real. A security drill by army troops and police on handling car bombs and …

DAKAR — When it comes to fighting militants in Africa, choosing allies is a risky business. Soldiers who overthrew Mauritania’s president this month may have ended 21 years of authoritarian rule and triggered dancing in the streets, but they also deprived the United States of a key ally in its …

RABAT (Reuters) — Morocco prepared to welcome home on Thursday the last 404 prisoners of war (PoW) who were held by Western Sahara’s exiled Polisario Front independence movement, many of them for almost two decades. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the release in Tindouf, Algeria, followed …