Egypt's army on Monday said 46 suspected jihadists were killed in clashes in the restive Sinai Peninsula, where troops are fighting the Islamic State group.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza began receiving $100 payouts from Qatar on Monday, the latest tranche of funds under an informal deal between the territory's Islamist rulers Hamas and Israel.

Hollywood star Gal Gadot has leapt to defend a fellow actress who was chided by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for challenging his party's treatment of Arab citizens.

Kurdish-led forces pounded the last scrap of land held by the Islamic State group Monday, a scattering of tents and destroyed buildings in a remote eastern Syrian hamlet.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani hit back Monday against pressure from the "aggressor" United States on Iraq to limit ties with its neighbor, during his first official visit to Baghdad.

The United States is "very optimistic" that France and Britain will participate in a residual force that U.S. President Donald Trump wants to leave in Syria, his national security advisor said Sunday.

"Certainly in conversations this past week with my British and French counterparts, I'm very optimistic that they're going to participate," John Bolton said, in an interview with ABC's "This Week."

U.S.-backed forces said Sunday time was up for Islamic State group jihadists hunkering down in their eastern Syrian holdout and an assault was imminent.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned Sunday against the dangers of protesting, in the wake of widespread demonstrations in Algeria and neighbouring Sudan.

Striking train workers and students shut the Algerian capital's rail network and most of the country's secondary schools Sunday, in protest against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's fifth term bid, witnesses said.

U.S.-backed Syrian forces awaited orders Sunday to relaunch their push against the Islamic State group's final scrap of territory as an earlier exodus of civilians from the redoubt slowed to a trickle.

The Syrian Democratic Forces renewed their offensive against the jihadists on March 1 after a weeks-long pause to empty the bombed-out bastion of non-combatants.