Umra Abbas Ammour, 60, dreamt of safety as she and her family fled jihadists in eastern Syria, but hours after reaching US-backed forces her son, daughter and granddaughter were all dead.

Yemen's Saudi-backed government began a new round of UN-brokered talks with Shiite Huthi rebels in Jordan on Tuesday on a troubled prisoner swap deal that mediators say hangs in the balance.

Pope Francis held a historic public mass for an estimated 170,000 Catholics at a stadium in the capital of the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, capping the first ever papal visit to the Gulf where Islam was born.

The United States urged other countries Monday to bring home hundreds of Islamic State sympathizers captured in Syria, a delicate issue for allies such as France as Washington withdraws troops. 

After allies grappled for weeks on what to do with the extremists left in Syria, the United States came down clearly on the side of repatriation.

The EU warned Tehran over its ballistic missile program and interference in the Syria conflict Monday, while welcoming a new mechanism to trade with Iran while bypassing U.S. sanctions.

Among thousands fleeing the crumbling dream of an Islamic State group "caliphate" in eastern Syria are alleged jihadists but also survivors of some of their worst atrocities.

French warplanes on Sunday carried out air strikes to halt an armed group that entered northern Chad from Libya in a column of 40 pickups, the French military said, adding it acted at Chad's request.

Pope Francis on Monday called for an end to wars in the Middle East during the first visit by the head of the Catholic church to the birthplace of Islam -- the Arabian Peninsula.

Police and medical officials say seven Iranian Shiite pilgrims traveling in central Iraq were wounded when their bus came under attack by unidentified gunmen.

The officials said late Sunday that the bus carrying 10 pilgrims was north of the capital of Baghdad when gunmen opened fire.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said his government maintained "low-level" contact through its spy agency with the Syrian regime despite being one of its most fervent critics.