Senior US officials met with Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar Monday to discuss steps toward ending his offensive on Tripoli, and accused Russia of exploiting the conflict, the State Department said.

The delegation, which included the US ambassador to Libya Richard Norland, aimed to establish "steps to achieve a suspension of hostilities and a political resolution to the Libyan conflict," the statement read.

Russia and the West are braced for a fresh showdown at the world's chemical weapons watchdog this week over a new team that will name culprits for attacks in Syria for the first time.

While noisy protests rage on Iraq's streets, in the backrooms of power political leaders are quietly hashing out ways to keep their posts and the huge financial rewards they bring.

The demonstrations rocking the capital and Shiite-majority south since early October are the biggest grassroots movement the country has seen since the 2003 US-led invasion that ended the Saddam Hussein regime.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's centrist rival Benny Gantz Saturday urged leaders of the premier's Likud party to join him in forming a government after their chief's indictment on corruption charges.

Six protesters were killed Sunday in Iraq's south, where resurging anti-government demonstrations turned up the heat on paralyzed politicians facing the country's largest grassroots movement in decades.

A car bomb killed nine people including four civilians in a Turkish-held border town in northern Syria on Saturday, a Britain-based war monitor said.

French Defence Minister Florence Parly took aim Saturday at "gradual US disengagement" in the Middle East and said its failure to respond to provocations blamed on Iran set off a dangerous chain of events.

Crouched between olive trees in northwest Syria, Jumaa al-Mustayf cuts long metal tubes with an electric saw to make tent frames for families displaced by war.

The images are both haunting and inspiring, transforming a once dreary, grim underpass into a vivid, colorful wall of art.

"We want a nation, not a prison," says one painting that depicts a man bursting free from behind bars. "Plant a revolution, and you will harvest a nation," reads another showing a hand flashing the victory sign over protesters heads.

Iraqi officials say the death toll has risen to 10 after overnight clashes between protesters and security forces in Baghdad.

Security and medical officials said one protester died of his injuries Friday morning. He was wounded in bloody street clashes between Ahrar and Sinak bridges the previous night. The officials say over 100 people have been wounded. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.