A Yemeni rebel attack killed 12 pro-government soldiers south of the battleground Red Sea port city of Hodeida on Friday, military and medical sources said.

Some components from five missiles fired at Saudi Arabia by Yemen's Huthi rebels were manufactured in Iran but U.N. officials are unable to determine when they were sent to Yemen, according to a confidential U.N. report seen by AFP.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad attended a mosque in the country's west on Friday for prayers marking the end of Ramadan, in a rare appearance outside Damascus, images on his social media showed.

The Russian embassy in Israel will host a reception for its national day in Jerusalem for the first time on Thursday, instead of Tel Aviv, a Russian official said.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi replaced the interior and defense ministers in a major reshuffle Thursday, with security forces battling an Islamist insurgency at the start of his second term.

Saudi air defenses on Thursday intercepted a ballistic missile fired from rebel-held territory in neighboring Yemen, state media reported, as a Riyadh-led military coalition pushes a major offensive to capture a strategic port.

The U.N. envoy for Syria said Thursday he will try to kickstart work towards a new constitution for the war-ravaged country with a series of meetings in the coming weeks.

Heavy clashes killed 39 combatants outside Yemen's rebel-held port city of Hodeida on Thursday, as a Saudi and UAE-backed offensive to retake the key aid hub entered its second day.

A Palestinian shot in clashes with Israeli forces on the Gaza border succumbed to his wounds Thursday, the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave said.

Cypriot authorities have safely escorted a boat carrying 61 Syrian refugees to shore after spotting it off the coast of the Mediterranean island, they said Thursday.