The Taliban claimed a US forces aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan yesterday hours after the plane went down into an area controlled largely by the insurgents.

Turkish prosecutors are investigating dozens of people for “provocative” social media messages about the deadly earthquake in eastern Turkey, reports said yesterday.

Iranians should not allow US President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” approach to harm national unity ahead of parliamentary elections, President Hassan Rouhani said in a speech, lashing out at hardliners over mass disqualification of candidates.

Iraqi security forces fired teargas and live bullets in renewed clashes with protesters in Baghdad and other cities, a Reuters witness and security sources say, following a push to clear a sit-in camp in the heart of the capital.

Iraqi police fought running street battles with anti-government demonstrators yesterday, firing tear and rubber bullets to try to disperse stone-throwing youths pressing for an overhaul of a political system they see as deeply corrupt.

Iran has confirmed two Tor-M1 missiles were fired at a Ukrainian airliner brought down this month, in a catastrophic error that killed all 176 people on board and sparked angry protests.

An Iranian lawmaker offered a $3 million reward to anyone who killed US President Donald Trump and said Iran could avoid threats if it had nuclear arms, ISNA news agency reported yesterday amid Tehran’s latest standoff with Washington.

Three Katyusha rockets fall inside Baghdad's Green Zone which houses government buildings and foreign missions, Iraqi police sources told Reuters.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says he wants to avoid war after Tehran and Washington appeared on the brink of direct military confrontation in early January for the second time in less than a year.

At least 11 American troops were injured in an Iranian attack on an Iraqi base where American soldiers were deployed, US Central Command says, although the US military had previously maintained there were no casualties.

Pakistan’s foreign minister yesterday said the Taliban has shown “a willingness” to reduce violence in war-torn Afghanistan after more than 18 years fighting the US, sparking speculation that a potential breakthrough in talks with the Americans may be near.

Iran yesterday accused European governments of sacrificing a troubled 2015 nuclear deal to avoid trade reprisals from US President Donald Trump who has spent nearly two years trying to scupper it.

Around 350,000 Syrians, mostly women and children, have been displaced by a renewed Russian-backed offensive in the opposition-held Idlib province since early December, and have sought shelter in border areas near Turkey, the United Nations said yesterday.

A missile strike on a Syrian airbase that Damascus blamed on Israel killed at least three Iran-backed militiamen, a monitor said yesterday.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani yesterday dismissed a proposal for a new “Trump deal” aimed at resolving a nuclear row, saying it was a “strange” offer and criticising US President Donald Trump for always breaking promises.

New video footage emerges showing two Iranian missiles tearing through the night sky and hitting a Ukrainian passenger plane, sending the aircraft down in flames and killing all 176 passengers and crew on board.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday he would “teach a lesson” to Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar if he resumed fighting after abandoning ceasefire talks in Moscow.

Waves of ballistic missiles, soldiers hunkered down in bunkers for hours, intense shock waves -- a top US commander said he reacted to Iran’s unprecedented attack against an Iraqi base with “disbelief”.

Iran said yesterday it had arrested people accused of a role in shooting down a Ukrainian airliner and had also detained 30 people involved in protests that have swept the nation since the military belatedly admitted its error.

Iran "deeply regrets" the accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian airliner earlier this week, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says in a tweet.