The US military says it has killed four al-Shabaab extremists in Somalia in what it calls airstrikes in self-defence. A US Africa Command statement on Tuesday says the extremists launched attacks on Somali troops and their US advisers on Monday in a village near the port city of Kismayo.

France’s president says his country will provide its full support to Libya’s UN-backed government in the fight against militants. “There are still some terrorist groups in Libya which must be hunted down and neutralised,” Francois Hollande said following a meeting on Tuesday in Paris with the head of Libya’s fragile …

A powerful Libyan general whose forces recently captured several key oil facilities has rejected a UN-brokered government and said the country would be better served by a leader with “high-level military experience.” In a series of written responses to questions from The Associated Press this week, Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter …