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"Iran-backed Hezbollah has "for years" been able to enter Israel, the Lebanese group's leader said on Saturday, responding for the first time to Israel's discovery of tunnels dug into Israeli territory from Lebanon."

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"As peace talks between the United States and Afghan Taliban enter a crucial stage, the Taliban leadership has announced a new chief negotiator, a man named Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar."

"The United States and the Taliban may have agreed on a plan for American troops to leave Afghanistan, sources privy to the development told VOA Saturday. In return, the insurgent group has given assurances that no international terrorist groups would be allowed to use Afghan soil to threaten America or any other country in the future."

"As the United States has shifted from trying to defeat the Taliban militarily to seeking a negotiated end to the long Afghan war, American diplomats and Afghan officials alike have grappled with a basic question: Just who speaks on behalf of the Taliban, and with how much authority?"

"As Turkey and Russia are discussing ways to stabilize war-torn Syria, a U.S.-designated terror group in northern Idlib province has been consolidating power, with some experts warning the group, if left unchecked, might grow stronger and complicate an already difficult situation."

"he Pentagon remained on the margins of the U.S. response to the crisis in Venezuela on Friday as military officials stressed they had not been asked to evacuate Americans amid an intensifying standoff between the Trump administration and President Nicolás Maduro."

"The Taliban is on board with blocking al Qaeda and the Islamic State from entering Afghanistan to plot terrorist attacks, according to a new report. Such an agreement has been a requirement that the U.S. has pushed for since last July, and it comes as the U.S. and the Taliban are participating in discussions in Doha, Qatar, about how to resolve the conflict in Afghanistan."

"There are signs of progress in the ongoing peace talks between the United States and the Taliban in Qatar, leading some to think they could set the stage for a politically negotiated settlement to the 17-year-old war in Afghanistan."

"President Trump may be a controversial and disruptive president. But in regard to Afghanistan, his frustration with the 17-year war differs little from the sentiments of President Barack Obama or most of the rest of us. Reportedly, he has asked for a precipitous cut of up to half the 14,000 American troops serving there, early this year."

"The U.S. military says it has carried out two new airstrikes in Somalia against the al-Shabab extremist group but will no longer give details on fighters killed or damage done. A spokesman for U.S. Africa Command says those details are now up to Somalia's government to share."

"The leader of Venezuela’s armed forces declared loyalty to President Nicolás Maduro on Thursday and said the opposition’s effort to replace him with a transitional government amounted to an attempted coup."

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"In a landmark concession to the U.S., the Taliban has agreed to oppose any attempts by militant groups to use Afghanistan to stage terrorist attacks abroad, a person familiar with the deal said, as talks between the insurgents and American diplomats to end the 17-year Afghan war entered a fourth day in the Gulf state of Qatar."

"Moro Islamic Liberation Front's long struggle for an autonomous region has likely passed a plebiscite but whether the rebels can administer as well as they fight is yet to be seen."

"The US military has moved additional troops into Syria in recent days to help provide protection to other US service members as they withdraw under President Donald Trump's directive to pullout all US troops from the country, according to two US defense officials. The officials would not reveal where in the country the troops are or how many have been sent."

"Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Wednesday to coordinate their moves in Syria as their governments bargain over zones of influence in the war-torn country."

"A new study by a defense analysis company indicates there was a 33 percent drop in global terror attacks in 2018, and terrorism fatalities fell to a 10-year low."

"Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is breaking off diplomatic relations with the United States and is giving embassy personnel 72 hours to get out of the country. Maduro made his announcement Wednesday hours after President Donald Trump officially recognized Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim leader and issued a blunt warning Maduro."

"The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it would no longer recognize Nicolás Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela, instead offering its formal support for opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who was elected leader of the Venezuelan congress earlier this month.

"Afghanistan’s intelligence agency said on Wednesday that the mastermind of a bloody attack on the agency’s base this week had been killed in an airstrike, but residents and local officials in the area said the airstrike had in fact targeted a group of hunters on a hilltop."

"US President Donald Trump says he recognises Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó as interim president. Tens of thousands of Venezuelans are taking to the streets in protest against President Nicolás Maduro."

"A massive new report contains details of what went right and wrong for the U.S. in the Iraq War. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Col. Frank Sobchak, one of the co-editors of the report."

"One of the world’s deadliest conflicts is one that many people don’t even know exists. Its battleground is the lush, fertile region that stretches across the center of Nigeria. Clashes between two groups there have killed more than 10,000 people in the last decade, almost 4,000 of them in the last two years alone."

"The aim of this paper is to describe the key tactical lessons the Australian Army can learn from the AFoP’s urban siege of Marawi City. Consideration of these lessons may inform and improve the Australian Army’s current approach to the force generation of close combat, combined-arms capabilities. It will identify the key tactical lessons learned by the AFoP fighting an intelligent, determined, disciplined and well-equipped terrorist threat in the extraordinarily difficult, intense and complicated terrain."