The Islamic State group order that prompted Mahmud al-Ali to flee his town was simple: "All young men aged 20 to 30 years old must enlist to fight throughout Syria."

Iraqi warplanes carried out air strikes Tuesday against Islamic State group positions in Tal Afar in preparation for a ground assault to retake the town near the Syrian border, the military said.

Despite the recapture of swathes of territory from the Islamic State group, the conflicts in Iraq and Syria are far from over as their governments face major political challenges, experts warn.

Israeli police arrested a firebrand Islamic cleric on Tuesday who has been repeatedly accused of inciting violence over a sensitive Jerusalem holy site where tensions again flared last month.

More than 600,000 displaced Syrians have returned to their homes since the beginning of the year, with most of them heading to Aleppo, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration.

Yemenis gathered Monday in the rebel-held capital to witness the putting to death of a man convicted of raping and killing a child, in the second such public execution in weeks.

Influential Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has visited the United Arab Emirates, its official news agency said Monday, his second trip in weeks to a Sunni-ruled Gulf country after Saudi Arabia.

A Palestinian woman stabbed and wounded an Israeli man near an east Jerusalem flashpoint on Saturday, before she was arrested, police said.

Washington has urged Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani to postpone an independence referendum scheduled for next month but he requested something in return, his office said Saturday.

Unidentified assailants shot dead seven members of Syria's White Helmets rescue service early Saturday during a raid on their base in a jihadist-held northwestern town, the group said.