Syrian President Bashar Assad says the American presence in Syria will lead to armed “resistance” that will eventually force the U.S. troops to leave.

Assad spoke in an interview with Russia24 TV and Rossiya Segodnya news agency that was broadcast on Friday.

Israel says it has completed a series of airstrikes on targets linked to the Islamic Jihad militant group in Gaza after rocket fire that rattled a day-old truce.

The military statement early on Friday indicates that Israel is willing to abide by the cease-fire if there are no additional rocket attacks.

A Moroccan rapper who co-authored a song criticizing the kingdom faces two years in prison after appearing in court Thursday charged with offending public officials.

Egypt faced strong criticism at a U.N. review of its rights record Wednesday, with diplomats voicing alarm over detention conditions and shrinking freedoms in the country recently rocked by mass protests.

For the first time in more than a decade, Israeli forces have bombed Gaza without targeting Hamas.

Qatar is over-using detention to punish those accused of non-violent crimes like adultery, defaulting on debt, falling pregnant out of wedlock and even sorcery, independent U.N. experts said on Thursday.

Russia has begun moving helicopters and other equipment to a new Syrian base on the Turkish border, state TV reported on Thursday, weeks after US forces left the area.

Two Mi-35 attack helicopters and a transport helicopter were moved from the Hmeimim base on the Mediterranean to Qamishli airport in northeastern Syria, reported Zvezda television, which is run by the defence ministry.

Four protesters were killed by tear gas canisters in Baghdad on Thursday as security forces try to snuff out the largest grassroots movement to sweep Iraq in years. 

Iraq's political elite has come under renewed pressure in recent days from both the street and the international community to seriously address calls for sweeping reform.

Kuwait's prime minister submitted his resignation Thursday along with his cabinet, officials said, amid infighting between ministers and criticism of their performance.

Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Sabah "submitted the resignation of the cabinet to the emir... in order to allow for a cabinet reshuffle," government spokesman Tareq al-Mazrem said in a statement.

Gaza militants fired a barrage of rockets into Israel on Thursday, hours after a cease-fire was declared to end two days of intense fighting between Israel and the Islamic Jihad group, the heaviest escalation in months that killed at least 34 Palestinians, including three women and eight children, and paralyzed parts of Israel.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the new wave of rockets and it wasn’t clear how this would affect the fate of the cease-fire.