U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday warned his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan against any "foreign interference" in Libya, the White House said, after Turkish lawmakers approved a military deployment to shore up the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday postponed a trip to Ukraine, the country at the heart of impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, after an attack on the American embassy in Iraq, the State Department announced.

Turkey's parliament passed a bill on Thursday approving a military deployment to Libya aimed at shoring up the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, at a time of intensifying international tensions over the conflict. 

Algeria released on Thursday well-known independence war veteran Lakhdar Bouregaa, who was detained last June for allegedly insulting the army, one of his lawyers told AFP.

An Iraqi activist was shot dead overnight in Baghdad, a police source told AFP on Thursday, as anti-government rallies carried on despite a separate day-long siege of the U.S. embassy.

The US embassy siege by pro-Iran protesters in Baghdad lasted just over a day, but analysts warn it could have lasting implications for Iraq's complex security sector and diplomatic ties.

Six Saudis detained by Yemen's Huthi rebels were released and flown to Riyadh on Wednesday, officials said, as efforts to end the five-year conflict gain momentum.

For months, their rallying cry has been "We want our country!" Now, Iraq's anti-government demonstrators insist they won't let the dramatic escalation between the United States and Iran steal their thunder.

French Defense Minister Florence Parly has condemned the attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad by pro-Iranian demonstrators and expressed solidarity with France's coalition partner in a New Year's address to French troops.

Land-to-land missiles fired by Syrian regime forces killed eight civilians including four children in a school in northwestern Syria on Wednesday, a war monitor said.