German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday strongly criticized the Turkish military offensive against Kurdish militants in their Syrian stronghold of Afrin.

After leading the charge against Islamic State jihadists on Syria's frontlines, Kurds feel betrayed by their Western allies following the seizure of their stronghold Afrin by Turkish forces.

Turkey's offensive aided by its Syrian allies including secular rebels and Islamist groups who rampaged through Afrin and triggered a mass exodus -- has left Syrian Kurds claiming the world stood by and watched as "ethnic cleansing" took place.

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday a 2007 strike on a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor was a message to his country's enemies, after the military acknowledged the raid for the first time.

Israel's military admitted for the first time Wednesday it was responsible for a 2007 air raid against a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor, a strike it was long believed to have carried out.

The admission along with the release of newly declassified material related to the raid comes as Israel intensifies its warnings over the presence of its main enemy Iran in neighbouring Syria.

The Islamist movement Hamas is to reopen the Gaza offices of a major telecommunications firm, officials said Tuesday, after a row over a probe into the attempted assassination of the Palestinian premier.

The OPCW global watchdog has received several allegations of chemical weapons use in Syria's Eastern Ghouta enclave but a thorough investigation of these claims will be difficult, the head of the organisation said Tuesday.

A rocket killed 35 people in a Damascus shopping district Tuesday, in one of the deadliest rebel attacks on the Syrian capital, as fire in the other direction left dozens of civilians dead in an opposition stronghold.

The United Nations said Tuesday it was "deeply concerned" over the safety of tens of thousands of civilians fleeing Syria's Eastern Ghouta as well as the security screening procedures for those trying to leave.

Saudi Arabia's crown prince received an effusive welcome at the White House Tuesday from U.S. President Donald Trump, who hailed a "great friendship" with the kingdom -- but made no public mention of the sticking points in the burgeoning alliance.

In front of the cameras, it was all back-slapping, handshakes, smiles and warm words between Trump and the heir to the Saudi throne, Mohammed bin Salman, who was seeking to burnish his leadership credentials.

U.S. lawmakers will vote Tuesday on whether to end American involvement in Yemen's bloody civil war, an extraordinary effort to overrule presidential military authorization just as Saudi Arabia's crown prince visits Washington.