The US is pulling out four of its powerful Patriot missile systems from Saudi Arabia, after determining the threat from Iran that sparked an arms buildup in the region last year had waned, a Defense Department official said Thursday.

A senior Yemeni rebel commander was killed Thursday, the Shiite rebels announced as fierce battles with government forces intensified along the front lines in the country's central provinces.

The slain rebels' special forces commander, Mohamed Abdel Karim al-Hamran, enjoyed close ties to the top Houthi leader, Abdul Malek al-Houthi. He was the most high-ranking commander killed this year, part of an elite brigade trained by militants from the Lebanese group Hizbullah.

Syria postponed a parliamentary election for a second time Thursday as part of measures to protect the war-battered country from the coronavirus pandemic.

The first wave of a massive exercise to bring home hundreds of thousands of Indians stuck abroad was under way Thursday, with two flights preparing to leave from the United Arab Emirates.

Israeli lawmakers approved the formation of a unity government between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his erstwhile rival Benny Gantz Thursday, paving the way to an end to more than a year of deadlock.

Mustafa Kadhemi took office as Iraq's premier early Thursday after breaking months of political deadlock, taking the reins amid a staggering economic crisis, a health pandemic and the spectre of renewed protests.

Three Katyusha-type rockets early Wednesday struck a military complex near Baghdad's international airport that is used by US troops and diplomats, Iraq's military said, without reporting casualties.

Three members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards were killed in a clash with a "counter-revolutionary" group in the western province of Kurdistan on Tuesday, ISNA news agency reported.

The Israeli army attacked military positions of the Islamist Hamas movement early Wednesday after militants in the Palestinian enclave fired a rocket at the Jewish state, the army said.

Overnight strikes on positions held by Iranian-backed militias and their allies in eastern Syria killed 14 fighters, a war monitor said on Tuesday.