Lagos / AFP Nigeria’s military claimed on Tuesday to have seriously injured Boko Haram’s elusive leader Abubakar Shekau and killed other commanders in an air strike on the extremist group’s forest stronghold. Nigeria has repeatedly claimed to have killed Shekau in previous raids only for him to appear shortly afterwards in videos. Shekau was “fatally wounded in the shoulder” …

  Kirkuk / AFP Iraqi special forces led an operation on Tuesday aimed at retaking the extremist-held town of Qayyarah, a key staging base for operations to attack Mosul, military sources said. Qayyarah lies on the western bank of the Tigris river, about 60 kilometres (35 miles) south of Mosul, the IS group’s last major urban stronghold in Iraq. With the …

  Berlin / AFP German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Tuesday on the EU and North African countries to do deals modelled on a controversial agreement with Turkey to stem migrant flows to Europe. Under the EU-Turkey agreement, Ankara agreed to take back one Syrian who made it to Greece in return for being allowed to send one from its massive …