US-backed forces battled Islamic State group fighters Saturday as the holdout jihadists clung onto the last dregs of their crumbling "caliphate" in eastern Syria.

Egypt says four Egyptians were among those killed in the New Zealand mosque shootings.

War is personal. And in Syria, after eight years of a grinding conflict, there are as many stories of loss, dispossession and desperate hope as there are people.

What started as peaceful protests in 2011 asking for government change turned into one of the cruelest modern wars and left a trail of broken lives among the country's pre-war population of 23 million. Now half are displaced, nearly half a million dead and many live with permanent scars or have joined militias.

U.S. diplomatic chief Mike Pompeo travels next week to Israel, where he will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a close ally of Donald Trump's administration in the midst of a heated re-election campaign.

The U.S. secretary of state travels to the Middle East February 19-23, stopping first in Kuwait for talks before heading to Jerusalem and Beirut, his spokesman Robert Palladino said.

Moroccan authorities said Friday the navy had rescued 21 people after a boat carrying migrants sunk in the Mediterranean, with a rights group saying 45 others had drowned in the incident. 

The Islamic State group Friday launched three coordinated suicide attacks targeting crowds leaving their embattled last redoubt in eastern Syria, killing six people, a spokesman for the force battling the jihadists said.

Gulf states, including rivals Saudi Arabia and Qatar, closed ranks in condemning the mosque attacks in New Zealand that killed at least 49 worshipers and wounded dozens during Friday prayers.

Gaza has for nearly a year been the scene of massive protests and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers along its demarcation line with the Jewish state.

Syria on Friday accused donors who pledged aid to help its citizens displaced by the country's eight-year war of "hypocrisy" as they continue to impose sanctions on the regime.

International donors -- led by the European Union -- meeting on Thursday in Brussels pledged nearly $7 billion in aid for 2019 for civilians caught up in the conflict.

A huge crowd of demonstrators marched through the Algerian capital for a fourth consecutive Friday to step up demands for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's ouster, rejecting his offer not to seek re-election.