Abducted Indian priest rescued in Yemen after 18 months

An Indian Catholic priest who was kidnapped by militants from a home for senior citizens in Yemen has been rescued after 18 months, an Indian official said Tuesday.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Twitter that Tom Uzhunnalil had been rescued, saying later Tuesday that he had reached Vatican City. He is expected to meet Pope Francis. Swaraj gave no other details.

Uzhunnalil had worked for more than four years as a chaplain at the home in Aden in southern Yemen established by Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity.

India summons Pakistan envoy over killing of 2 soldiers

A top Indian diplomat Wednesday summoned Pakistan's ambassador to demand that Islamabad take action against soldiers and officers responsible for the killing and mutilation of two Indian soldiers.

The Indian army has said the soldiers were killed and mutilated Monday in an ambush by Pakistani soldiers along the highly militarized de-facto border that divides the disputed region of Kashmir between the nuclear-armed rivals.

India says Pakistan killed 2 Indian soldiers in Kashmir

Two Indian soldiers were killed and their bodies mutilated Monday in an ambush by Pakistani soldiers along the highly militarized de facto border that divides the disputed region of Kashmir between the nuclear-armed rivals, the Indian army said. But Pakistan denied any such attack, calling the Indian claims false.

Separately, five police officials and two bank employees were killed when suspected rebels ambushed a bank van in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said.

US drops 'mother of all bombs' on Islamic State tunnel

U.S. forces in Afghanistan on Thursday struck an Islamic State tunnel complex in eastern Afghanistan with "the mother of all bombs," the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the U.S. military, Pentagon officials said.

The bomb, known officially as a GBU-43B, or massive ordnance air blast weapon, unleashes 11 tons of explosives. When it was developed in the early 2000s, the Pentagon did a formal review of legal justification for its combat use.

The Pentagon said it had no early estimate of deaths or damage caused by its attack, which President Donald Trump called a "very, very successful mission."

Philippines: Troops killed militant blamed for beheadings

Philippine troops battling militants in a central province killed a key Abu Sayyaf commander who had been blamed for the beheadings of two Canadians and a German hostage and was apparently attempting another kidnapping mission, the military chief said Wednesday.

Military chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Ano told The Associated Press that troops have recovered and identified the remains of Moammar Askali, who used the nom de guerre Abu Rami, in the scene of the battle in a far-flung coastal village on Bohol island, where five other Abu Sayyaf gunmen were killed in the fighting Tuesday, along with four soldiers and policemen.

3 Kashmir civilians killed in protests against Indian rule

Three civilians were killed and 28 other people were injured in anti-India protests that erupted Tuesday following a gunbattle between rebels and government forces that killed a rebel in disputed Kashmir, police and witnesses said.

The gunbattle began after police and soldiers cordoned off the southern town of Chadoora following a tip that at least one militant was hiding in a house, said Inspector-General Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gillani.

As the fighting raged, hundreds of residents chanting anti-India slogans marched near the area in an attempt to help the trapped rebel escape.

Syrian rebels begin evacuation from besieged Homs

Scores of Syrian opposition fighters and their families began leaving the last rebel-held neighborhood in the central city of Homs on Saturday as part of a Russian-backed evacuation deal signed earlier this week.

By sunset, 344 fighters and their families had left the city — once a center of protest during the 2011 uprising — completing the evacuation for the day. They were bound for a town on the Turkish border after the latest in a series of local agreements in which insurgents have relocated to the rebel-held north after months or years under siege in the country's major cities.

Activist: Basque separatist group ETA to disarm by April 8

Basque civil society groups will fully disarm the separatist group ETA by April 8, a French environmental activist with ties to the Basque community promised Friday.

The militants announced a permanent cease-fire in 2011, but the governments of Spain and France have so far refused to take part in its disarmament because ETA tied it to the future of its militants, both in and out of jail. The two countries have demanded that ETA lay down its weapons without conditions and disband.

At least 57 al-Shabab extremists killed in Somalia assault

At least 57 members of the al-Shabab extremist group were killed Thursday as African Union and Somali forces attacked one of its camps, the AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia announced. It was one of the deadliest assaults on the al-Qaida-linked group by the joint forces.

The multinational force said on Twitter that vehicles and equipment were destroyed in the morning assault on the al-Shabab camp outside Afmadhow and "a large cache of weapons" was captured. The statement said helicopter gunships supported the attack.

Blind cleric behind 1990s terror plots dies in US prison

Omar Abdel-Rahman, the so-called Blind Sheik convicted of plotting terror attacks in New York City in the decade before 9/11 and spiritual guide to a generation of Islamic militants, has died in a federal prison. He was 78.

Abdel-Rahman, who had diabetes and coronary artery disease, died Saturday at the Federal Correction Complex in Butner, North Carolina, said its acting executive assistant, Kenneth McKoy. The inmate spent seven years at the prison medical facility while serving a life sentence.

"We are saddened by your departure, father," the cleric's daughter, Asmaa, tweeted in Arabic.

Amnesty urges Egypt to investigate Sinai killings by police

Egypt must launch an independent and thorough investigation into the recent killing of 10 men by security forces in the Sinai Peninsula, Amnesty International said on Monday.

The government announced earlier this month that the 10 had been killed in a shootout in the northern Sinai city of al-Arish. But in a Monday statement, the London-based advocacy group repeated what the families of the slain men already claim — that at least six of them had already been in police custody for weeks before their deaths.

Nigerian air force bombs refugee camp, more than 100 dead

A Nigerian air force fighter jet on a mission against Boko Haram extremists mistakenly bombed a refugee camp on Tuesday, killing more than 100 refugees and aid workers and wounding 200, a government official and doctors said.

Military commander Maj. Gen. Lucky Irabor confirmed an accidental bombardment in the northeastern town of Rann, near the border with Cameroon, saying "some" civilians were killed.

Militants attack checkpoint in Egypt's Sinai, killing 8

Militants attacked an Egyptian police checkpoint in the northern Sinai Peninsula on Monday using a stolen garbage truck packed with explosives, killing at least eight people and setting off clashes with security forces, officials said.

No one immediately claimed the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group's Sinai affiliate, which has carried out scores of attacks on Egyptian troops and police in recent years.

Indian police say gun battle has ended at Kashmir army camp

A gun battle with a group of militants who attacked an Indian army camp in the Indian portion of Kashmir that killed one Indian paramilitary soldier and wounded another has ended early Monday morning, police said.

A senior police official speaking on customary condition of anonymity said search operations were on at the base which was attacked late Sunday by an unspecified number of militants firing grenades and guns.

Dueling truths follow Indian raid in Pakistani Kashmir

In New Delhi, they say that highly trained Indian soldiers slipped across the de facto border and into Pakistani-controlled Kashmir in a daring nighttime raid, killing anti-India militants preparing to launch attacks.

In Islamabad, they say only one Indian soldier made it across the border — and he was captured — with Pakistani forces easily driving back the other Indians, who retreated as soon as they encountered resistance.

India says it has struck militants across Kashmir frontier

India said Thursday it carried out "surgical strikes" against militants across the highly militarized frontier that divides the Kashmir region between India and Pakistan, in an exchange that escalated tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

Pakistan dismissed the reports that India's military had targeted "terrorist launch pads" inside the Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir. Islamabad said instead that two of its soldiers were killed in "unprovoked" firing by India across the border.

Pakistan says India will 'disintegrate' when Kashmir is free

Pakistan's defense minister on Wednesday said India will "disintegrate" when Kashmir gains independence, in a sign of mounting tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Khawaja Muhammad Asif told The Associated Press that Pakistan will continue to extend moral support to the people of the disputed Himalayan region, which is split between Pakistani and Indian control but claimed in its entirety by both.

India trying diplomacy in dealing with rival Pakistan

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has long been known for his hard-line stance on Pakistan. It was a major part of the campaign that swept him to power.

But even with his own officials saying a recent attack on an Indian military base was launched by Pakistan-based militants, Modi is relying on diplomacy more than saber-rattling.

In large part, this is because Modi and Indian forces already must defuse the massive and relentless anti-India protests that have swept its portion of Kashmir, triggered by the killing of a young rebel leader more than two months ago. The unrest has led to a clampdown by security forces that often left the Kashmir Valley under curfew, with schools, universities and businesses shut through the summer tourist season.

Pressure builds on India gov't to retaliate against Pakistan

India's prime minister came under increasing pressure Monday from within his own party, as many in the country demanded a strong response to a deadly weekend attack that the government blames on Pakistan-based militants.

But amid the calls for revenge, many analysts warned that a military response would be extremely dangerous, and that diplomatic and trade restrictions were far more likely.

17 soldiers killed in attack at Indian army base in Kashmir

Suspected rebels using guns and grenades sneaked into a crucial army base in Indian-controlled Kashmir early Sunday and killed at least 17 soldiers in the deadliest attack on a military base in the disputed Himalayan region in recent years, the army said.

Four rebels were killed as the soldiers returned gunfire after the surprise assault before dawn on the base, located near the highly militarized Line of Control dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan.