Saudi Arabia announced Friday the seizure of nearly 15 million captagon pills, an amphetamine that is wreaking havoc in the kingdom as well as across the region.

The oil-rich Gulf state is estimated to be the largest market for the drug, where it is used for recreational purposes but also as a stimulant for workers.

After artillery bombardment killed nine people in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, Baghdad called for a withdrawal of Turkish forces and said Ankara should handle its "domestic problems" with PKK rebels far from Iraq's borders.

But with Turkey a regional economic, military and diplomatic power, can a weakened Iraq extricate itself from the decades-old war between Ankara and Kurdish rebels?

At least three Libyan civilians were killed overnight in heavy clashes between militias in the capital Tripoli, the emergency services said on Friday.

A gunbattle erupted late Thursday in Ain Zara, a densely populated neighborhood of eastern Tripoli, between the Al-Radaa force and the Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigade, media reports said.

Tunisians will vote Monday on a constitution that would give President Kais Saied almost unchecked powers, a key moment in his plan to overhaul the political system in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.

The referendum takes place a year to the day after Saied sacked the government and suspended parliament in a decisive blow against the country's often chaotic young democracy.

The top U.S. Air Force general in the Middle East has warned that Iran-backed militias could resume attacks in the region against the United States and its allies as tensions rise — assaults that could lead to a new Mideast escalation.

Speaking to journalists before stepping into his new role at al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, with responsibility for military operations in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and across the region, Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich also expressed fears over Russian and Chinese influence taking hold as superpowers vie for economic and military influence in the Middle East.

A Saudi who allegedly helped a non-Muslim enter the holy city of Mecca has been arrested, police in the kingdom said on Friday, after online backlash against an Israeli journalist.

The journalist, Gil Tamary of Israel's Channel 13, on Monday posted to Twitter video of himself sneaking into Mecca, Islam's holiest city, in defiance of a ban on non-Muslims.

Israel's prime minister has said he would send a delegation to Moscow in hopes of halting a Russian order to shutter the operations of a major nonprofit organization that promotes Jewish immigration to Israel.

Yair Lapid's decision came after a spokeswoman for a Moscow District Court was quoted as saying that Russia's Justice Ministry aims to "shut down" the Russian branch of the Jewish Agency. A court hearing in the case is scheduled for July 28.

Hundreds of angry Iraqis took to the streets late Thursday to decry deadly strikes on an Iraqi tourist resort the previous day that the government has blamed on Turkey. The protests erupted just hours after the families of those killed in the shelling buried their loved ones.

Turkey's foreign minister rejected accusations that his country's military carried out Wednesday's attack on the district of Zakho in Iraq's semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region. At least eight Iraqis were killed, including a child, and 20 were wounded.

Turkey has renewed its threats of a new military offensive against Syria's Kurds, but what can it do after failing to secure the green light of Russia and Iran?

Turkey's foreign minister on Thursday rejected accusations that the country's military carried out deadly artillery strikes against tourists in northern Iraq, as the Iraqi families of those killed laid their dead to rest.

In an in an interview with Turkish state broadcaster TRT, Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey was willing to cooperate with Iraqi authorities to shed light on the "treacherous attack."