A senior Army three-star general with extensive experience in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has been nominated to become the top U.S. commander for the Middle East.

President Joe Biden has nominated Army Lt. Gen. Erik Kurilla to head U.S. Central Command and be promoted to four-star general, according to multiple U.S. officials.

Poland's most powerful politician has acknowledged that the country bought advanced spyware from the Israeli surveillance software maker NSO Group, but denied that it was being used to target his political opponents.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Poland's ruling conservative party, Law and Justice, said in an interview that the software, Pegasus, is now being used by secret services in many countries to combat crime and corruption. He noted that Pegasus represents a technological advancement over earlier monitoring systems, which did not allow the services to monitor encrypted messages.

Israeli tanks fired on suspects along the Syrian border in the Golan Heights after they were detected near Israeli forces, the Israeli military said.

Algeria's ambassador to Paris is to resume his post after he was recalled in October following comments by French President Emmanuel Macron that Algiers deemed offensive, the presidency said Wednesday.

An Israeli court on Wednesday sentenced a man to one year in prison for his involvement in a mob attack on an Arab motorist during a spasm of communal violence last year.

Lahav Nagauker, who was 20 at the time, was convicted of incitement to violence and racism as part of a plea deal that resulted in lighter charges.

Israel's defense minister met with the Jordanian king on Wednesday, both sides said, part of a reset of ties between the two countries.

According to Benny Gantz' office, the two discussed "security and policy topics." Gantz "welcomed the expansion of relations between Jordan and the current Israeli government."

The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group said one of its bases in northeast Syria came under fire on Wednesday from Iran-backed groups, the latest in a string of attacks.

The development came one day after coalition forces said they had foiled a rocket attack on the same base, located in a part of Syria under the control of Kurdish forces.

An influential Saudi cleric who once served for years as head of the kingdom's Shariah courts and whose ultraconservative views sparked outcry died on Wednesday, leaving behind a legacy that mirrored the kingdom's decades-long slide toward Wahhabism.

His family announced his death on Twitter, saying 90-year-ol Sheikh Saleh bin Mohammed al-Luhaidan died after battling an illness that was not disclosed. His funeral is taking place Wednesday in line with Islamic tradition of immediate burial.

A Katyusha rocket struck an Iraqi military base hosting U.S. troops at Baghdad's international airport on Wednesday, an Iraqi military statement said.

No damage or casualties were reported from the attack, the third in as many days since Monday's anniversary of a U.S. airstrike that killed top Iranian general Qassim Soleimani in Baghdad two years ago.

Two armed drones targeting an air base in western Iraq were shot down on Tuesday, an official of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group said.