A Japanese tanker attacked in the Gulf of Oman last week was damaged by a limpet mine resembling Iranian mines, the US military in the Middle East said on Wednesday.

"The limpet mine that was used in the attack is distinguishable and it is also strikingly bearing a resemblance to Iranian mines that have already been publicly displayed in Iranian military parades," Commander Sean Kido of US Naval Forces Central Command said. 

US assets in Iraq have been targeted at least five times in as many days, officials said Wednesday, amid a tense standoff between Baghdad's key allies, Washingon and Tehran.

A Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen intercepted a Huthi rebel drone targeting the kingdom, a spokesman said Wednesday, calling it another violation of an already fragile ceasefire in a key Red Sea province.

The unmanned drone was shot down in Yemeni airspace after the Iran-aligned rebels launched it from Hodeida province, coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said in comments carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

There is "credible evidence" linking Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince to the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi last October, a report by an independent United Nations rights expert said Wednesday.

Israel is holding its largest military drill in years, with thousands of troops from the army, navy and air force simulating a future war with Lebanese Hizbullah militants.

Kuwait's emir has arrived in Iraq for a rare official visit to the neighboring country amid rising tensions in the Persian Gulf between Washington and Tehran.

Iraq's President Barham Saleh received Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah at Baghdad's airport on Wednesday.

A key backer of Algeria's former leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika and one of the country's top businessmen, Ali Haddad, was jailed for six months Monday for holding two passports, state television reported.

Haddad was arrested in late March on the border with Tunisia, in possession of two passports and undeclared currency, days before Bouteflika resigned in the face of mass protests.

Military chief General Ahmed Gaid Salah said Tuesday that those who oppose the army were "enemies of Algeria", as the country's protest movement demands an overhaul of the entire regime.

Egypt accused the United Nations on Wednesday of seeking to "politicise" the death in court of the country's first democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi by calling for an "independent inquiry".

U.N. chief Antonio Guterres called on Russia and Turkey Tuesday to "stabilize the situation" in the Syrian province of Idlib, rocked by intense fighting between pro-government and jihadist-led forces.