Four civilians, including two children, were killed by Israeli strikes on the Syrian province of Hama at dawn yesterday, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

Two men blew themselves up in a crowded Baghdad market today, killing at least 32 people in Iraq’s first big suicide bombing for three years, authorities said, describing it as a possible sign of the reactivation of Islamic State.

Turkey has ordered the arrest of 238 people in an operation targeting suspects in the military allegedly linked to a Muslim preacher who Ankara says was behind a 2016 failed coup, state-owned Anadolu news agency reported yesterday.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has warned the Iran nuclear deal is at a “critical juncture”, as Tehran’s moves to breach it threaten efforts to get the US back on board.

Israel’s military said yesterday its fighter planes struck Hamas facilities in the Gaza Strip after Palestinians fired rockets at the Jewish state.

The company that bought the ammonium nitrate which exploded in Beirut last August had possible links to two Syrian businessmen under U.S. sanctions for ties to President Bashar al-Assad, according to a report by a Lebanese journalist and London company filings.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards test-fired ballistic missiles against targets in the Indian Ocean as they wrapped up a two-day exercise, their official website reported yesterday.

Yemenis fear a U.S. decision to blacklist the Houthi movement could further isolate them from the global financial system, depriving the war-battered country of vital remittances and hampering the flow of imports.

Kuwaiti ministers handed in their resignations to the prime minister today, the government communications office (CGC) said, days after lawmakers submitted a motion asking to question the premier over issues including the makeup of the cabinet.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s top crude exporter, announced Sunday the launch of an eco-city “with zero cars, zero streets and zero carbon emissions” at its futuristic NEOM mega development.

Encroaching sands have left little evidence that the Omani village of Wadi al-Murr ever existed, but former inhabitants and curious visitors are coming to rediscover the hamlet engulfed by the desert.

Iran will expel United Nations nuclear watchdog inspectors unless sanctions are lifted by a Feb. 21 deadline set by the hardline-dominated parliament, a lawmaker said today.

A Saudi court has rejected the bail petitions of three accused arrested in a case filed for the murder of a Bangladeshi domestic worker in Saudi Arabia two years ago.

Embracing Qatar’s ruler, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince pushed a deal to end a bitter row with Doha at a Gulf Arab summit to try to shore up an anti-Iran front, although a final declaration contained only a general pledge of solidarity.

Saudi Arabia will reopen its borders and airspace to Qatar, US and Kuwaiti officials said Monday, a major step towards ending a diplomatic rift that has seen Riyadh lead an alliance isolating Doha.

A breakthrough has been reached in Qatar’s three-year-old dispute with Saudi Arabia and three other Arab countries and an agreement to end their rift is to be signed in Saudi Arabia, a senior Trump administration official said.

An Israeli official has dismissed as “nonsense” an allegation by the Iranian foreign minister that Israel was trying to trick the United States into waging war on Iran.

Saudi Arabia has announced to resume all international flights from 11:00 am today, amid strict precautions against the new Covid-19 strain.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif urged US President Donald Trump not to be “trapped” by an alleged Israeli plan to provoke a war through attacks on US forces in Iraq.

A car bomb near a vegetable market in northeastern Syria killed five people including children yesterday in the Turkish-held border town of Ras al-Ain, a war monitor said.