U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is heading to the Middle East, the White House said Tuesday, signalling a fresh push on a long promised but yet to be delivered peace plan for the region.

Kushner is accompanied by Jason Greenblatt, Trump's special representative for international negotiations, and Brian Hook, the special U.S. representative for Iran, the White House said.

At least 21 civilians were killed on Tuesday as Syria's regime intensified its bombardment of the last jihadist stronghold in the country's northwest, a monitor said.

A Baghdad court sentenced two more Frenchmen to death Tuesday for joining the Islamic State jihadist group, raising the number of French IS members on death row in Iraq to six.

New satellite photos show significant damage to Syrian villages and surrounding farmland as a result of a government offensive on the last rebel stronghold in the country.

The images, provided to The Associated Press by the Colorado-based Maxar Satellites on Tuesday, show fires in olive groves and orchards during harvest season around Kfar Nabudah and Habeet, two villages on the edge of Idlib province where fighting has focused. The fires were apparently sparked by intense bombing in the area.

The Iraqi Kurdish parliament on Tuesday elected Nechirvan Barzani, the nephew and son-in-law of veteran leader Massud Barzani, as president of the autonomous region.

The deputy leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party won 68 votes from the 81 members present in the 111-seat chamber, in a poll boycotted by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of late Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, an AFP correspondent said.

France said Tuesday it was stepping up efforts to stop Iraq executing four French citizens convicted of fighting alongside the Islamic State (IS) group.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urgently worked to break a deadlock in coalition negotiations Tuesday as the once far-fetched possibility of fresh general elections only months after April polls loomed ever larger.

Human Rights Watch on Tuesday accused both Egyptian security forces and jihadists of committing "war crimes" in their confrontation in the restive North Sinai region.

Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia hosts Islamic, Arab and Gulf summits this week as tensions between Iran and the US raise fears of military escalation.

An Israeli missile struck the Syrian province of Quneitra on Monday, causing casualties, the official SANA news agency reported.