An Algerian military raid on a gas facility where Islamist militants were holding dozens of hostages, freed an Irish citizen on Thursday, but at least one Briton was killed.

The Times's Mark Mazzetti talks about the challenges facing Washington in crafting a strategy for dealing with Islamist militants in Mali.

French soldiers were battling Islamist militants in direct clashes on the ground in central Mali, officials said on Thursday.

Armed attackers who seized dozens of hostages, including Americans and other foreigners, at a gas field were surrounded by Algerian troops as France’s intervention in Mali escalated into a broader conflict.

The police chief said the dead included a senior prison warden, fitting a pattern of earlier attacks on security personnel.

Demonstrators outraged by the conduct of departing Kenyan legislators set 221 coffins on fire on Wednesday, causing an inferno outside Parliament’s main entrance.

The rush of violent events has masked the fact that officials in Washington still have only an impressionistic understanding of the militant groups that have established a safe haven in Mali.