Iran-supported groups on Friday blasted Iraq's president for not naming their preferred prime minister candidate, saying his decision was at the behest of the United States, and warned him not to designate anyone who could be "an agent of the Americans."

In refusing to appoint Fatah-backed candidate Asaad al-Eidani on Thursday, President Barham Salih said he was responding to broad opposition by anti-government protesters who have flooded the streets for nearly three months to demand the overthrow of Iraq's entire political class.

The director of an Algerian internet radio station has been placed in pre-trial detention after a new charges were pressed against him, a prisoners' rights group said Friday. 

Libya's U.N.-recognized unity government in Tripoli has requested military support from Turkey, an agreement which Ankara will honor, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's top press aide said on Friday.

"Libya's government has requested Turkey's military support. As President Erdogan said, we will of course honor our agreement," Fahrettin Altun tweeted. 

A Navy SEAL platoon leader controversially pardoned of war crimes by U.S. President Donald Trump was described as "toxic" and "freaking evil" by fellow Iraq veterans, The New York Times reported Friday.

Tens of thousands of Algerians demonstrated Friday for the second consecutive week since the contentious election of a new president, insisting on a total revamp of the political establishment.

Hundreds of Palestinians took part in protests along the Gaza-Israel border Friday, the last of the Hamas-backed demonstrations until March.

Algeria's newly elected President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has chaired a rare meeting of the country's top security body to discuss contingency plans for a threatened Turkish military intervention in neighboring Libya.

Iraqis were divided Friday by their president's threat to resign rather than accept a pro-Iran coalition's candidate for premier, with some saying it was unconstitutional but others praising his civic-mindedness.

More than 235,000 people have fled the Idlib region over the past two weeks, the UN said Friday, amid heightened regime and Russian attacks on Syria's last major opposition bastion. 

Japan will send a military vessel and two patrol planes to help protect waterways in the Middle East but will not join a US-led coalition in the region, the government said Friday.