The Kremlin yesterday accused Washington of betraying the Kurds by withdrawing its forces from northern Syria and leaving allies alone in the face of a Turkish offensive.

The Taliban stormed a checkpoint in northern Afghanistan killing at least 15 policemen in the latest attack by the armed group, an official said yesterday.

US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper arrived Monday in Saudi Arabia, state television said. On October 11, the Pentagon said it was deploying new US troops to Saudi Arabia after Riyadh asked for reinforcements following a mid-September drone and missile attack on Saudi oil plants, which Washington blames on Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suffered a bitter defeat in his bid to hang on as premier by failing to form a new government, but his opponent faced similar difficulties yesterday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday as the Turkish leader threatened to restart Ankara’s military offensive against Kurdish forces in Syria.

A decision to impose a 100 percent tax on bills at restaurants that serve shisha has ignited criticism on social media in Saudi Arabia, where the water pipes are a popular pastime.

Lebanon’s cabinet approved a raft of economic reforms and agreed on the 2020 budget, Prime Minister Saad Hariri said yesterday.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday lashed out at Western states, accusing them of “standing by terrorists” in failing to support Turkey’s operation against Syrian Kurdish fighters.

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo was sworn in for a second term yesterday, as helicopters flew overhead and troops kept watch in the capital Jakarta -- days after Islamist militants tried to assassinate his top security minister.

US forces withdrew from their largest base in northern Syria yesterday, a monitor said, as Turkey accused Kurdish forces of killing one of its soldiers in fighting that tested a fragile truce.

Israeli security guards at a West Bank crossing into Israel shot dead a Palestinian assailant who ran at them with a knife on Friday, the Israeli defence ministry said.

At least 62 people are killed by a blast inside an Afghan mosque during Friday prayers, according to officials, a day after the United Nations said violence in the country had reached "unacceptable" levels.

US President Donald Trump has hailed his surprise decision to withdraw US troops from Syria as “strategically brilliant”, declaring that the Kurds were “not angels”.

Thirty-five foreigners were killed and four others injured when a bus collided with another heavy vehicle near the Muslim holy city of Madina, Saudi state media said yesterday.

An “unprecedented” number of civilians were killed or wounded in Afghanistan from July to September this year, the United Nations said in a new report released yesterday, calling the violence “totally unacceptable”.

Qatar’s government said yesterday it adopted a new minimum wage law and will scrap mandatory exit visas for all workers, part of a broad labour reform program ahead of its hosting of the 2022 World Cup.

Saudi Arabia and the Palestinians yesterday agreed to establish a joint economic committee and a business council, as the Palestinian Authority faces a financing gap that could top $1.8 billion.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s brother entered prison yesterday to begin a five-year sentence after he was convicted of corruption, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported, citing his lawyer.

At least three people were killed and about 20 children wounded when a Taliban truck bomb detonated near a rural police station and partially destroyed a nearby religious school, Afghan officials said.

Hundreds of people were killed or wounded in violence related to Afghanistan’s recent presidential election season as the Taliban sought to undermine the democratic process, a UN agency said yesterday.