Arab and Kurdish fighters were advancing on Sunday against the Islamic State group in eastern Syria thanks to close artillery support from allied American and French forces, a monitor said.

Thirteen-year-old Hassan may have committed atrocities for the Islamic State group, but instead of jailing him immediately, the Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria enrolled him in a rehabilitation center.

To fast or not to fast? For the first time in years, Syrians in Raqa can choose to observe a relaxed Ramadan, without the rigid regulations imposed by the Islamic State group and their religious police.

"We are free to fast or not," says Ahmad al-Hussein, a resident of the northern Syrian city that was the inner sanctum of IS' self-styled "caliphate." 

A first batch of Islamic State group fighters left their final stronghold in Syria's capital early Sunday under a deal struck after weeks of fierce combat, a monitor said. 

Pro-government forces and the Islamic State group have reached a ceasefire in southern Damascus, a monitor said, after weeks of deadly fighting in the jihadists' last stronghold in the Syrian capital.

A summit in Istanbul of Muslim heads of state on Friday called for the creation of an international peacekeeping force to protect the Palestinians, as host Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of "brutality" comparable to the Nazis.

Saudi authorities have arrested seven prominent women's rights advocates, just weeks before the kingdom's longstanding driving ban on women is set to be lifted, Human Rights Watch said Saturday.

The final results of Iraq's elections confirmed Saturday a breakthrough for nationalist cleric Moqtada Sadr, who was in the lead, ahead of internationally favoured prime minister Haider al-Abadi.

The Trump administration is aiming to roll out its much-hyped but long-delayed Middle East peace plan next month amid signs it may further alienate the Palestinians by slashing millions of dollars in funding for humanitarian and development projects in the West Bank and Gaza.

Five U.S. officials and a congressional aide say the administration intends to release the peace plan in mid- to late-June, shortly after the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, although they cautioned that the timing could slip depending on developments in the region. They say the plan's main authors — President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and Trump's special envoy for international negotiations Jason Greenblatt — have already begun quietly briefing select allies and partners on elements of the proposal.

The UN human rights chief on Friday slammed Israel's deadly reaction to protests along the Gaza border as "wholly disproportionate", backing calls for an international investigation.

Addressing a special session of the UN Human Rights Council on the violence which has claimed more than 100 Gazan lives in six weeks, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein warned that "killing resulting from the unlawful use of force by an occupying power may also constitute wilful killings, a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention".