Russian air strikes over the past month have killed 27 Syrian civilians, a monitor said Tuesday, the lowest monthly civilian death toll since Moscow began its bombing campaign. 

A suicide bombing at a popular Baghdad ice cream shop killed at least 16 people, officials said Tuesday, an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

More airstrikes and artillery shelling on Monday hit the northern Syrian city of Raqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State group, as U.S.-backed fighters pushed closer to the extremists' stronghold, activists said.

The developments come ahead of what is expected to be a major battle for Raqa in the coming weeks.

Egypt's president has signed into law a contentious new bill to regulate non-governmental organizations, the official gazette said on Monday, triggering fears of an intensified crackdown on civil society.

France would respond immediately to any use of chemical weapons in Syria, French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday while urging a stepped-up "partnership" with Moscow in fighting the Islamic State group in the country.

Authorities in Morocco on Monday arrested the fugitive leader of a protest movement that has shaken the country's northern Rif region for months.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Monday held talks in Cairo with Russia's foreign and defense ministers on ways to battle "terrorism," his office said.

Tunisian security forces have killed a leader of the Islamic State group who was plotting attacks during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, authorities said on Monday.

Qatar has deported a Saudi human rights activist who was on his way to Norway where he hoped to seek asylum, a watchdog said on Monday.

Iraqi forces pressed forward Monday with an offensive against jihadist-held areas of Mosul as the United Nations warned of grave danger to civilians in the final stages of the battle.