WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The leader of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq and several of his top lieutenants have recently left Iraq for Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian security forces arrested 15 Hamas activists, including four university lecturers, in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, in the latest sweep by Fatah against the Islamist group, witnesses said.

GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas released on Thursday a cameraman working with Germany’s ARD news network in the Gaza Strip after a nearly weeklong detention, security sources said.