Tunisians began voting Monday on a constitution seen as a referendum on President Kais Saied, whose charter would give his office nearly unchecked powers in a break with the country's post-2011 democratic trend.

Voting began at 6:00 am (0500 GMT) at some 11,000 polling stations across the North African country, and was set to close at 10:00 pm.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is in Cairo for talks Sunday with Egyptian officials as his country seeks to break diplomatic isolation and sanctions by the West over its invasion of Ukraine.

Israeli troops and special forces on an arrest mission exchanged fire with Palestinians barricaded in a house in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, Israeli police said. The local rescue service said two Palestinians were killed.

Saudi Arabia announced Friday the seizure of nearly 15 million captagon pills, an amphetamine that is wreaking havoc in the kingdom as well as across the region.

The oil-rich Gulf state is estimated to be the largest market for the drug, where it is used for recreational purposes but also as a stimulant for workers.

After artillery bombardment killed nine people in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, Baghdad called for a withdrawal of Turkish forces and said Ankara should handle its "domestic problems" with PKK rebels far from Iraq's borders.

But with Turkey a regional economic, military and diplomatic power, can a weakened Iraq extricate itself from the decades-old war between Ankara and Kurdish rebels?

At least three Libyan civilians were killed overnight in heavy clashes between militias in the capital Tripoli, the emergency services said on Friday.

A gunbattle erupted late Thursday in Ain Zara, a densely populated neighborhood of eastern Tripoli, between the Al-Radaa force and the Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigade, media reports said.

Tunisians will vote Monday on a constitution that would give President Kais Saied almost unchecked powers, a key moment in his plan to overhaul the political system in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.

The referendum takes place a year to the day after Saied sacked the government and suspended parliament in a decisive blow against the country's often chaotic young democracy.

The top U.S. Air Force general in the Middle East has warned that Iran-backed militias could resume attacks in the region against the United States and its allies as tensions rise — assaults that could lead to a new Mideast escalation.

Speaking to journalists before stepping into his new role at al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, with responsibility for military operations in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and across the region, Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich also expressed fears over Russian and Chinese influence taking hold as superpowers vie for economic and military influence in the Middle East.

A Saudi who allegedly helped a non-Muslim enter the holy city of Mecca has been arrested, police in the kingdom said on Friday, after online backlash against an Israeli journalist.

The journalist, Gil Tamary of Israel's Channel 13, on Monday posted to Twitter video of himself sneaking into Mecca, Islam's holiest city, in defiance of a ban on non-Muslims.

Israel's prime minister has said he would send a delegation to Moscow in hopes of halting a Russian order to shutter the operations of a major nonprofit organization that promotes Jewish immigration to Israel.

Yair Lapid's decision came after a spokeswoman for a Moscow District Court was quoted as saying that Russia's Justice Ministry aims to "shut down" the Russian branch of the Jewish Agency. A court hearing in the case is scheduled for July 28.