They once stood side by side against tear gas and bullets, protesting together against Iraq's government. But after cleric Moqtada Sadr's followers switched sides, young activists feel vulnerable and betrayed.

The world's chemical watchdog on Thursday slammed two former inspectors who leaked confidential papers questioning the body's findings into a 2018 chlorine attack in the Syrian town of Douma, saying they "are not whistleblowers".

Syrian government troops entered a key town in the country's last rebel stronghold Thursday after intense clashes with opposition fighters, even as Turkey sent reinforcements to curtail the offensive, Syrian state media reported.

Saraqeb in Idlib province has been at the center of intense clashes for days. Opposition fighters pushed out government forces who entered it Wednesday, while Turkey sent in new reinforcements Thursday and threatened to use force to compel the Syrian forces to retreat by the end of the month.

Israeli forces arrested a man accused of ramming his car into a group of soldiers on Thursday, wounding 14 people, the army said.

Human Rights Watch on Thursday called on Tunisia to bring home nearly 200 children of suspected jihadists stranded or held in crowded camps and prisons in Libya, Iraq and Syria.

Young Iraqi protesters pushed on with anti-government rallies across the country on Thursday as they buried seven fellow activists killed overnight in violence blamed on supporters of powerful cleric Moqtada Sadr.

A secretive criminal court in Saudi Arabia is being used to silence critical voices including clerics and rights activists, in the name of the fight against terrorism, Amnesty International said Thursday.

Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas hailed a car-ramming in Jerusalem that wounded 12 Israeli troops on Thursday as a "practical response" to US President Donald Trump's controversial Middle East peace plan. 

Israeli troops were the target of a car-ramming that wounded 14 people in central Jerusalem on Thursday, the army said, adding that 12 of the casualties were soldiers. 

Israeli air strikes killed 23 Syrian and foreign fighters in Syria Thursday, a monitor said, the latest in a spate of raids Israel has said targeted an Iranian presence on its doorstep.