Turkish troops and allied opposition fighters have begun a siege of the Syrian Kurdish-held northern town of Afrin.

Syrian government troops and allied militias have seized a wide strip on the southern edge of Aleppo from rebels, closing in on tens of thousands of civilians squeezed into the centre of the city, according to state media and an opposition monitoring group.

Iraqi special forces say they have entered more urban neighbourhoods of Mosul from its easternmost district in its latest push to drive Islamic State fighters from the city.

At least 30 Ethiopian troops have been killed in an attack on a base for African Union peacekeepers in central Somalia, a Somali military official said.

Syrian government forces and allied militias have made a swift advance into rebel-held suburbs of Damascus, threatening to disrupt a years-long stalemate in the war around the Syrian capital.

At least 233 people have been killed after a powerful earthquake hit Ecuador.

Six American troops have been killed in a suicide attack near Bagram airfield in Afghanistan, US officials said.

Turkey has withdrawn some of its soldiers from a camp in Iraq, its prime minister announced, days after Iraq had demanded that Turkish troops immediately leave Iraqi territory.

Nato foreign ministers have agreed to keep about 12,000 troops in Afghanistan through next year, while pushing forward with a funding drive to help the country through 2020.

Schools and much of the Brussels metro system reopened yesterday as the Belgian capital started to return to normal after four days of lockdown, but troops on the street were a reminder it remains on alert.

France has invoked a never before used part of the Lisbon Treaty that could see Irish troops sent to Mali on peacekeeping duties.

The death toll in a shooting at a regional police training centre in Jordan has risen to eight, according to reports.

Israel’s military is beginning to deploy hundreds of troops to assist police forces in Israeli cities.

Hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria to join a major ground offensive on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad’s government, a further sign of the rapid internationalisation of a civil war in which every major country in the region has a stake.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has strongly defended Moscow’s military aid to the Syrian government, saying it is impossible to defeat the Islamic State group without co-operating with Damascus.

Russian troops have arrived in Syria in recent days to aid Bashar Assad’s beleaguered government in the battle against Islamic State militants, Israel’s defence minister said.

South Korea says it has agreed to halt propaganda broadcasts after North Korea expressed regret over a recent land mine blast that maimed two South Korean troops.

Germany will pull two Patriot missile batteries, and 250 troops, from southern Turkey by the start of next year, after a reassessment of the threats from the conflict in neighboring Syria.