Eurasia

Ankara to protect civilians and prevent Idlib exodus, governing party MP says, as Syrian government attacks intensify.

Security officials in Egypt said suspected Islamic militants on Sunday blew up a natural gas pipeline in the restive norther part of Sinai Peninsula.

Paris has said it will deploy 600 additional troops to the border zone between Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. French forces are also seeking to train local fighters who Paris says are unprepared to take on jihadi groups.

Lebanon’s protests have drawn protesters from all religious sects. But Hezbollah, the Islamist militia and political party, and its ally, the Amal Movement, have tried to smother demonstrations by Shiites.

Iraq’s military said on Thursday it was resuming operations with the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State which had mostly halted after bases hosting U.S. troops came under rocket attacks and a U.S. drone strike killed a top Iranian commander.

A Russian-backed Syrian government offensive against the country’s last rebel enclave has caused one of the biggest waves of displacement in the nine-year-old war.

Islamic State extremists are mounting increasingly bold attacks in Syria and Iraq following their loss of territory in both countries and are planning for the breakout of their fighters in detention facilities, U.N. experts said in a new report.

The UN negotiator leading talks in Geneva to secure an end to fighting in Libya said on Tuesday that high-ranking officials from both sides of the conflict have agreed on the need for a “permanent and lasting” ceasefire to replace an uncertain truce.

Russia says it has started the production of a batch of S-400 missile defense systems for India under a deal the two countries reached two years ago, despite threats of sanctions made by the United States against New Delhi over the purchase of the advanced Russian systems.

The Moroccan military has reportedly received three Israeli-made and long-endurance Heron unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as the Northern African country maintains informal but close intelligence ties with the Tel Aviv regime.