Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked militants are quickly moving to drum up outrage over a sharp spike in civilian casualties said to have been caused by U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, posting photos online of a destroyed medical center and homes reduced to rubble. "This is how Trump liberates Mosul, by killing its inhabitants," the caption reads.

The propaganda points to the risk that rising death tolls and destruction could undermine the American-led campaign against the militants.

The Palestinians and the United Nations on Friday condemned the Israeli cabinet's approval of the first officially sanctioned new settlement in the occupied West Bank in more than 20 years.

The security cabinet gave its unanimous backing to the new settlement late on Thursday as what is widely seen as the most right-wing government in Israeli history presses ahead with settlement expansion in defiance of international concern.

The children proudly wield donated plastic water bottles like freshly dug nuggets of treasure, smiling despite the fear and death and destruction they have faced in their ruined city.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Thursday that Washington is no longer focused on ousting President Bashar Assad as it seeks ways to end Syria's civil war.

"You pick and choose your battles," Nikki Haley told reporters. "And when we're looking at this it's about changing up priorities and our priority is no longer to sit and focus on getting Assad out."

Hundreds of civilians fled their homes Thursday as fresh clashes erupted between Islamic State group jihadists and a Kurdish-Arab alliance near the town of Tabqa in northern Syria. 

The Syrian opposition to the Damascus regime said Thursday it would reject "any role" now or in the future for current President Bashar Assad, even as the United States now says Assad's departure is no longer a priority to end the conflict.

Palestinian NGOs and rights groups on Thursday called on Hamas to reopen the only foot crossing into Israel, after the Islamist movement closed it following an assassination.

A Bahraini court on Thursday sentenced three Shiite Muslims to jail and stripped them of their citizenship over terrorism-related charges, as the Gulf kingdom toughens its stance against dissent.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday that the fate of Syrian President Bashar Assad was up to the war-ravaged country's people.

Speaking after talks in Ankara, he added there was "no space" between Turkey and the U.S. over fighting the so-called Islamic State group -- even as his Turkish counterpart reiterated a key point of discord.

At least 14 people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle at an entrance to Baghdad, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group, officials said Thursday.

The blast, which hit the checkpoint at the main southern entrance to the city on Wednesday night, also wounded at least 36 people, the officials said.