Militants with the mostly Christian anti-Balaka group in the Central African Republic killed one United Nations peacekeeper and injured 11 others during an attack on a UN base, the organization confirmed. UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the militants attacked the temporary base in Tagbara, and peacekeepers engaged them in a gun battle that lasted several hours. The peacekeeping mission reported that more than 22 militants died in the fighting. The Central African Republic fell into chaos in 2013 after the Muslim Seleka rebel group overthrew the Christian government.

Father Georges Jahola sits hunched over his laptop, his clerical collar just visible underneath a jacket he’s forgotten to remove. The parish priest is studying spreadsheets and cadastral maps of his hometown in Nineveh Plain, Qaraqosh, while men and women scurry in and out of his office, questions flying amid a shuffle of papers in Syriac, Arabic, and English.

At least 43 people died and 35 others sustained injuries late Tuesday when mortar fire struck a market district in the Syrian capital of Damascus, according to state media. The death toll is one of the highest from a single attack among recent clashes in the country. The assault took place in the government-controlled Kashkol neighborhood. Witnesses told Al-Ikhbariya TV the attack happened during rush hour at the market a day before the country marked Mother’s Day. Hospital director Mohammed Haytham al-Husseini told state television the majority of the casualties were women and children.

Turkish-backed Syrian forces on Sunday secured control of the Syrian town of Afrin after a nearly two-month offensive, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed. Turkey on Jan. 20 intensified its operation in Afrin against the Kurdish militia, which Turkey considers a terror group. Erdogan in a statement said the troops seized control of the town Sunday morning and started to clear out landmines. The allied troops raised their flags in Afrin and fired celebratory shots.

Friday marked the 50th anniversary of the My Lai massacre, when U.S. troops sacked a city and killed 504 unarmed civilians during the Vietnam War. Provincial official Dang Ngoc Dung said at a ceremony in the town of My Lai that the massacre was a typical case of “cruel crimes committed by aggressive and hostile forces” during the war. He did not name the United States but said Vietnam wants to set aside the past and work toward a better, peaceful future.

At least 68 civilians died in two separate clashes in Syria Friday, a day after the seventh anniversary of the start of the Syrian civil war. Syrian Kurdish forces said Turkish airstrikes and shelling in the Afrin region killed at least 20 civilians. Turkey considers the Kurdish militia a terror group affiliated with other Kurdish rebels who have staged attacks in Turkey. Redur Khalil, spokesman with the Syrian Democratic Forces, confirmed the civilian casualties and said at least 30 others sustained injuries during shelling in the Ashrafieh neighborhood in Afrin.

Nearly 10,000 civilians have evacuated the besieged Syrian region of eastern Ghouta outside Damascus, where clashes persist between government troops and opposition forces, state media confirmed Thursday. The Syrian-run al-Ikhbariya TV said the fleeing civilians used a Syrian military humanitarian corridor to enter government-held territory. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed some 9,300 civilians left by Thursday. Syrian responders said government troops and their Russian allies continued to hit the region with airstrikes and rocket fire.