Pope Francis concluded on Monday the first-ever papal trip to Iraq, which went off without a hitch despite security worries and a second wave of coronavirus cases in the country.

After a decade of unfathomable violence and human tragedy that has made Syria the defining war of the early 21st century, the fighting has tapered off but the suffering hasn't.

At least eight migrants and guards were killed, and scores more injured, in a fire on Sunday at a holding facility in Yemen's capital, the International Organization for Migration said. 

Pope Francis vowed Sunday to keep Iraq in his heart, as he concluded the largest mass and final public event of a historic trip meant to encourage the country's dwindling Christian community and deepen interfaith dialogue.

A Saudi-led military coalition mounted air strikes on Yemen's Huthi-controlled capital Sanaa on Sunday after it intercepted a string of drones launched by the Iran-backed rebels, state media reported.

The Iraq meeting of Pope Francis and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, one of Shiite Islam's top clerics, was front-page news in Iran Sunday, with some media declaring it a chance for peace in the neighboring country.

Pope Francis prayed Sunday for "victims of war" in northern Iraq, where the Islamic State group ravaged one of the world's oldest Christian communities until the jihadists' defeat three years ago.

Missile strikes on makeshift oil refineries in northern Syria killed four people and injured more than 20 others, a war monitor said Saturday.

Fierce fighting between Yemeni pro-government forces and Iran-backed Huthi rebels has killed at least 90 combatants on both sides in the past 24 hours, government military sources said Saturday.

Syria's Kurds have handed back 12 children of alleged Islamic State members to their mothers from Iraq's Yazidi minority, a Kurdish official said Friday.