Leading Iraqi Shiite figures warned Monday against attempts to pull their country into a war between the U.S. and Iran, saying it would turn Iraq into a battlefield yet again, just as it is on the path to recovery.

The warning came hours after a rocket slammed into Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, landing less than a mile from the sprawling U.S. Embassy. No injuries were reported and no group immediately claimed the Sunday night attack.

Just a month before the African Cup of Nations, Egypt was hit by a bomb blast that undermined efforts to burnish its image as a bulwark of stability after years of turmoil.

The Palestinian leadership said Monday it was not consulted over an economic conference next month in support of Washington's Middle East peace plan and no party was entitled to negotiate on its behalf.

Twelve suspected jihadists were killed Monday in police raids near Cairo, Egypt's interior ministry said, a day after a bomb blast injured 17 people including tourists near the Giza pyramids.

Kuwait's deputy foreign minister said countries in the Gulf have strengthened coordination to provide oil to global markets amid increased regional tensions.

Air strikes by Syrian regime ally Russia have killed 10 civilians including five children in a northwestern jihadist bastion, a monitor said Monday, hours after Moscow announced a ceasefire there.

Iraq on Sunday slammed as "political" a decision by U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil to evacuate staff from a southern oil field after Washington ordered personnel to quit its Baghdad embassy.

A bomb blast hit a tourist bus near Egypt's famed Giza pyramids on Sunday, wounding at least 17 people, including South Africans, in the latest blow to the country's tourism industry.

The Arab League called Sunday on the German parliament to rescind a resolution that condemned a boycott movement against Israel as "anti-semitic".

It is improbable that an exploding smartphone or tablet caused the crash of an Airbus jet operated by EgyptAir three years ago, according to an expert report commissioned by French authorities and seen by AFP on Sunday.