KABUL (Reuters) – U.S.-led forces targeted Taliban fighters in eastern and southeast Afghanistan, including veteran commander Jalaluddin Haqqani’s network, killing several militants, the U.S. military said on Thursday.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A suicide bomber blew himself up near a convoy of a U.S. security firm in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Thursday, killing two people and wounding six, the provincial governor’s spokesman said.

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) – Falah Mohammed peered over his shoulder as he spoke of how militants threatened to kill him and his family unless he quit his government job.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Sunni Arab neighborhood patrols have been vital to cutting violence in Iraq. But how the Shi’ite-led government handles their future could foster sectarian reconciliation or start a new round of bloodshed.

SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) – Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia plans to become part of the Russian Federation, its leader said on Thursday.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistani security forces have killed 20 militants near the Afghan border, a security official said on Thursday, as tensions over how to tackle the Taliban and al Qaeda surfaced with the United States.

KABUL (Reuters) – A bomb planted on a bicycle went off near the governor’s office in the southern Afghan province of Ghazni on Thursday, wounding seven people, an official said.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli authorities and settlers have seized large tracts of land in the occupied West Bank for security zones around Jewish settlements beyond an Israeli-built barrier, a human rights group said on Thursday.

Russia has urged the United Nations’ highest court to dismiss a case brought by Georgia, accusing Moscow of human rights violations in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Israel has annexed thousands of hectares of West Bank land beside the barrier it is building, according to an Israeli rights group.