Habib Siddiqui

  A squad of Myanmar pro-democracy fighters works quickly to ready drones for an attack on a nearby military base, the latest target in a wave of aerial assaults that has helped turn the war against the junta. The team stood back as one contraption named "Bomber VIII" carrying a new six-kilogram explosive soared over a line of trees. "The military position is four kilometres away from us," said Soe Thuya Zaw, the drone unit's leader, as he punched coordinates into a map on his phone. Minutes later the drones had reached the position and at the push of a button released their "drop bombs" over the target. The team counted two blasts. One had failed to detonate, but all three drones returned safely. Opponents of Myanmar's junta use such attacks to challenge the military's dominance of the skies through its Russian- and Chinese-built jets and helicopters. "While military pilots are flying fighter jets themselves and attacking us, we are also ...

  NEW DELHI (AP) — A rebel group that fought for decades to free India’s northeastern state of Assam from New Delhi’s rule on Friday signed a peace accord with the government pledging to end the insurgency in the region. The United Liberation Front of Asom or ULFA, led by Arabinda Rajkhowa, concluded 12 years of negotiations with the Indian government. The signing ceremony in New Delhi was attended by India’s Home Minister Amit Shah and the top elected official of Assam state Himanta Biswa Sarma. However, the group’s hard-line faction, led by Paresh Baruah, is not part of the agreement. Baruah is believed to be hiding somewhere along the China-Myanmar border, the Press Trust of India news agency said. ADVERTISEMENT ULFA, formed in 1979 demanding a “sovereign Assam,” carried out a reign of terror in Assam state in the late 1980s, including extortion, kidnappings and killings, especially targeting the state’s flourishing tea companies. It killed several tea planters. OTHER NEWS Russe...

  CAIRO (Reuters) - The armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said on Saturday that an Israeli soldier being held captive by the group in Gaza had been killed in an Israeli air strike that had also wounded some of his captors. In an audio speech broadcast by Al Araby television, a spokesperson for the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades group said the air strike took place following a failed attempt by Israeli commandos to free the soldier. The spokesperson gave no details of when the soldier had been taken captive, or where he was being held in Gaza. He said the group is still holding the body of the slain soldier. The Israeli military spokesperson's office declined to comment. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is the second biggest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) after Fatah. Related:   A Timeline of the Israel-Palestinian Conflict

  A   Palestinian   journalist has opened up for the first time about a threat he said he had received in the first week of   Israel's   war on   Gaza . Hossam Shabat said on Wednesday that he received the threat while in Beit Hanoun, a city in the enclave's north, on the sixth day of Israel's assault. He was documenting the bombing of homes and massacres, and staying in a hospital. He added on social media platform X that an officer from Israeli intelligence called him, telling him to delete posts on his Facebook account. These were "posts from 7 October, calls for citizens to resist, and invitations to citizens to remain", according to Shabat. The journalist said he was told he and those with him had to leave or his home would be bombed, but he refused to go. "However, after the complete bombing of the house and an attempt to tighten the siege on us in the hospital, I went out under fire," Shabat said. "But despite all these threats and the comple...

  Anadolu News Agency quoted the Government Media Office in Gaza as saying that the sites include ancient churches, mosques, schools, museums and other different historical and archeological sites and monuments. “The ancient and archeological sites destroyed by the army date back to the Phoenician and Roman ages, others date back between 800 BC and 1,400, while others were built 400 years ago,” the Office said in a statement. The Great Omari Mosque, the Byzantine church in Jabaliya, the Shrine of Al-Khadir in Deir al-Balah city in central Gaza Strip, and the Blakhiya Byzantine cemetery (The Anthedon of Palestine), northwestern Gaza City were among the sites. The statement noted that other sites were severely damaged, including the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church, the 400-year-old Al-Saqqa House and the Sayed al-Hashim Mosque, which is one of the oldest mosques in Gaza. The Geneva-based rights group, Euro-Med Monitor, said on November 20 that Israel deliberately destroyed arc...