Kasmaal  Independent Somali news and analysis website .

Army commanders say areas west of the Old City have been recaptured and a senior ISIL operative was Iraqi forces have retaken two more neighbourhoods in western Mosul, military commanders have said, as fighting intensifies amid a US-backed offensive to recapture ISIL‘s last urban stronghold in the country. “The forces completed the liberation of al-Thawra neighbourhood,” […]

North Korea said Sunday that it was prepared to sink a U.S. aircraft carrier in a show of its military might, as two Japanese navy ships joined the U.S. carrier group for exercises in the western Pacific. U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group to sail to waters off the […]

Independent centrist Emmanuel Macron will face anti-EU, anti-immigration candidate Marine Le Pen in the French presidential run-off duel on May 7, according to initial estimates after Sunday’s hotly contested first round. If Macron tops the first round – his score was initially estimated at 23.7 percent, two points up on the populist Le Pen, according […]

BASASSO: A military vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Somalia’s semi autonomous Puntland region on Sunday, killing at least six soldiers and injuring another eight, a military official told Reuters. The Al-Qaeda-linked militant group Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack, which happened on the outskirts of the region’s port city of Bosasso. Al-Shabab is fighting […]

NORTH Korea’s threat of a nuclear strike on Australia is of “enormous concern” but such threats have become part of the regime’s day-to-day rhetoric, according to the Opposition. The rogue state turned its sights on Australia, threatening nuclear retaliation after Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said North Korea would be subject to further Australian sanctions. North […]

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis arrived Sunday for a short visit to Djibouti, a strategically important country on the Horn of Africa which hosts the United States’ only permanent military base on the African continent. Camp Lemonnier, home to some 4,000 US soldiers and contractors, is vital to US military operations in Somalia against militant […]

China shares Russia’s point of view on the situation in Syria and North Korea, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. According to the Chinese official, Russia’s approach to Syria and North Korea are “logical and reasonable.” The official noted that China supported Russia‘s suggestion to attract […]

French voters went to the polls under heavy security Sunday for the first round of the most unpredictable presidential election in decades, with the outcome seen as vital for the future of the beleaguered European Union. Polling stations opened at 8:00 am (0600 GMT) and the last will close in major cities at 8:00 pm (1800 […]

TEHRAN – A senior Iranian official has criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s contradictory words, saying he “does not have a clear understanding of international relations.” Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani made the remarks in an interview with the French daily Le Monde, which was published on Friday. Shamkhani’s remarks came after […]

French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on Friday accused far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen of seeking to use the killing of a policeman on Paris’s Champs Elysees for political gain. Cazeneuve, a Socialist, accused Le Pen of “shamelessly exploiting fear and emotion for purely political ends,” just two days before the first round ofFrance’s presidential election. […]