Saudi Arabia said Monday that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had distorted the image of Islam, and hailed his killing by US special forces in northwest Syria.

Students and schoolchildren hit the streets of Baghdad and southern Iraq on Monday to join escalating calls for the government to quit, defying the education minister, legal threats and even their parents.

In the middle of the night amid the olive trees of northwest Syria, Abu Ahmad heard soldiers "speaking a foreign language" attack the home next door.

Iraq's intelligence services provided U.S. forces with the location of elusive Islamic State group chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ahead of the raid that killed him, the security forces said Sunday.

It started with eight helicopters flying low in the dark across hostile territory. It ended two hours later with one of the most wanted men in the world cornered by U.S. soldiers, then blowing himself up.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday said that elusive Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed, dying "like a dog," in a daring, nighttime raid by U.S. special forces deep in northwest Syria.

Trump told the nation in a televised address from the White House that U.S. forces killed a "large number" of Islamic State militants during the raid which culminated in cornering Baghdadi in a tunnel, where he set off a suicide vest.

Saudi Arabia took command of anti-rebel troops in Yemen's Aden, Saudi state media said Sunday, after the government and southern separatist forces struck a power-sharing deal following August clashes in the city.

Algeria's election authority has registered 22 candidates for a December presidential election, including two former prime ministers under former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the official APS agency reported Sunday.

The dominant jihadist group in northwest Syria on Sunday blocked access to the site of a suspected U.S.-led operation against Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an AFP correspondent reported.

Hundreds of protesters hunkered down in the Iraqi capital's Tahrir Square on Sunday, defying another night of tear gas and shuttered roads as they pledged to "weed out" the political class.