The government of Mali has joined with France in condemning alleged atrocities that have occurred during a new offensive launched by Tuareg rebels in the northwest African nation.

The ethnic Tuaregs are seeking autonomy in Mali's northern regions.

Peru's president says an alleged leader of the Shining Path rebel group has been captured deep in the Peruvian jungle.

President Ollanta Humala said Sunday that Florindo Flores, known as "Artemio," was shot and badly wounded before his arrest last week. Initially, Mr. Humala said Flores had died, but authorities now say the guerrilla leader is still alive.

Pirates have carried out a deadly hijacking off Nigeria's coast, prompting a maritime watchdog to warn vessels about traveling through the region.

The head of the International Maritime Bureau, Noel Choong, said the latest attack took place on Monday when the attackers seized a cargo ship, killing the ship's captain and chief engineer.

Choong told VOA the rest of the ship's crew locked themselves in a safety compartment and that a French warship and Nigerian authorities were summoned to help them.

Syrian state television says twin explosions at security compounds in northern Syria Friday killed at least 28 people and wounded 235 others as a government crackdown on opposition protests spiked nationwide.

The blasts targeted a military intelligence building and a security force base in Syria's northern city of Aleppo, which had been relatively quiet since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's regime erupted in March.

Nigerian authorities have recaptured the top suspect in a Christmas day bombing that killed at least 37 people outside the capital, Abuja.

Government officials say the State Security Service re-arrested Kabiru Sokoto on Friday in eastern Taraba state near the Cameroon border. Authorities say he has been flown to Abuja.

Sokoto is believed to belong to the radical Islamic sect Boko Haram, which has claimed responsibility for the December 25 attack on St. Theresa Catholic Church.

Somalia's transitional government says it is not surprised that militant group al-Shabab has formally joined forces with al-Qaida.

The government's minister of information, Abdulkadir Hussein Mohamed, said in a statement Friday that word of the alliance is “no news to us.”

He asserted that al-Shabab leaders are paid representatives of al-Qaida, and that al-Shabab can no longer, in his words, “masquerade as an indigenous Somali-Islamic organization.”

Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri announced the alliance with al-Shabab in a video message posted to jihadist websites Thursday.

Pakistani intelligence sources say a U.S. drone strike in northwest Pakistan has killed a senior militant with links to al-Qaida.

Badar Mansoor was killed in the attack early Thursday at a house in Miran Shah, the main town in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal agency. His death was confirmed by members of the Pakistani Taliban.

Officials say Mansoor led a group of Taliban fighters in the region and had close ties to al-Qaida. He was allegedly involved in a number of attacks throughout Pakistan.

Four other militants were also killed in the missile strike.

Al-Qaida's leader says the Somalia-based militant group al-Shabab has joined the terrorist network.

An Internet monitoring service said Thursday that al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri delivered the news in a video message.

According to the SITE Intelligence Group, al-Zawahiri gave “glad tidings” in his remarks, and announced al-Shabab has joined al-Qaida's jihadist movement against what he called the “Zionist-Crusader campaign.”

Al-Shabab has previously said it is aligned with al-Qaida, and in June pledged allegiance to al-Zawahiri, after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden.

U.S. 4th Fleet is supporting Joint Interagency Task Force-South's (JIATF-S) Operation Martillo with deployed maritime and aviation assets in U.S. Southern Command's (USSOUTHCOM) area of responsibility (AOR), following an JIATF-S announcement Feb. 8.

Operation Martillo, a U.S., European, and Western Hemisphere partner nation effort targeting illicit trafficking routes in coastal waters along the Central American isthmus. Martillo is the Spanish word for hammer.