BAKU, Azerbaijan – At least 30 soldiers and a boy were reported killed as heavy fighting erupted Saturday between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The fighting was the worst outbreak since a full-scale war over the region ended in 1994. Since then, mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh – officially part of Azerbaijan – has been under the control of local ethnic Armenian forces and the Armenian military.
Armenian forces also occupy several areas outside Nagorno-Karabakh proper. The sides are separated by a demilitarized buffer zone, but small clashes have broken out frequently. Each side blamed the other for Saturday’s escalation.
NAIROBI, Kenya – Kenyans on Saturday marked the first anniversary of the Garissa University attack, when four extremist gunmen massacred 148 people, with renewed criticism of the government’s handling of crisis.
Hundreds gathered at the site of the attack in eastern Kenya to remember the incident, one of the country’s worst-ever terrorist attacks carried out by four gunmen from the al-Qaida-allied Somali al-Shabab group.
The gunmen were finally killed by a police commando unit after 12 hours.
BEIRUT – Syria’s partial cease-fire is unravelling, as fierce fighting between government forces and opposition fighters, including members of the al-Qaida affiliated Nusra Front, erupted Saturday outside Aleppo.
At least 25 pro-government and 16 opposition fighters died in clashes south of Aleppo, where the Nusra Front and rebel militias captured a hill overlooking a major highway, a Britain-based monitoring group told The Associated Press.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fighting continued throughout the day Saturday close to the village of Tel al-Ais, which overlooks the main road connecting Aleppo with the capital, Damascus.
Associated Press
