Iraqi merchant Mohamed has never seen such a grim tourist season: years of drought have shrunken the majestic Lake Habbaniyah, keeping away the holidaymakers who once flocked there during summer.

"The last two years, there was some activity, but now there's no more water," said 35-year-old Mohamed, asking to be identified by his first name only.

Germany's foreign minister was waiting in Abu Dhabi on Monday after a technical problem on her government plane — the latest in a succession of such incidents — forced it to return to the airport rather than continue to Australia.

Annalena Baerbock was due to arrive in Canberra on Monday night at the start of a visit to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. But her German air force Airbus A340 had to return to Abu Dhabi after a refueling stop because of "a mechanical problem with the landing flaps," ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for an ambush in eastern Syria that killed and wounded dozens of soldiers as opposition activists said the death toll rose to at least 33 as some of the wounded succumbed to their injuries.

The attack is among the deadliest to be carried out this year by the extremists. IS sleeper cells still carry deadly attacks despite their defeat in Syria in 2019. The group once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq where they declared a caliphate in 2014.

Violent explosions were heard from missile stockpiles of pro-Iran militias east of Syria's capital Damascus before dawn on Sunday, a war monitor said.

Residents of the Damascus region heard the blasts which came from "the warehouses of pro-Iran militias" in a mountainous area east of the capital, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria.

The head of this year's U.N. global climate summit has urged more availability of funds to fight climate change in the Caribbean during a regional meeting in Barbados.

Sultan al-Jaber, the United Arab Emirates' minister of industry, noted that high costs have prevented island nations from quickly adopting renewable energy as they face what he said was some of the world's harshest climate impacts.

A suspected al-Qaida attack in southern Yemen has killed a military commander and three soldiers from a secessionist group, according to the group's leader, security officials, and an eyewitness.

Commander Abd al-Latif al-Sayyid and the three soldiers from the Security Belt Forces, a fighting group loyal to Yemen's secessionist Southern Transitional Council, were killed in an explosion while traveling in a convoy through southern Abyan province, three security officials and the witness said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has fired most of the governors in the occupied West Bank, responding to long-standing demands for a political shake-up as frustration grows with the semi-autonomous Palestinian Authority.

Abbas issued a decree dismissing the governors of eight provinces under Palestinian administration in the occupied territory. The upheaval included the restive northern cities of Nablus, Jenin and Tulkarem, the focus of a recent surge in Palestinian militancy that has undermined the authority's leadership. Only three areas — including Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority — retained their governors. The president's office said that he would form a committee to suggest replacements.

The Israeli military stormed into a refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank on Friday, sparking a firefight with Palestinian gunmen and killing a Palestinian man, medics said.

The raid into the Tulkarem refugee camp was the latest deadly Israeli military operation into Palestinian cities and towns following a monthslong surge of violence that has escalated regional tensions, highlighted the weaknesses of the Palestinian Authority and helped fuel rising militancy in the restive occupied territory.

At least 23 Syrian soldiers have been killed in the conflict-torn country's east in an attack on an army bus blamed on Islamic State group jihadists, a monitor said Friday.

IS "members targeted a military bus" in Deir Ezzor province on Thursday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, as remnants of the jihadist group escalate their attacks.

At least six Turkish soldiers were killed during clashes with outlawed Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, the Turkish defence ministry said on Thursday.

The soldiers were killed by fire from "the separatist terror organisation", it added, referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) listed as a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies.