A top U.S. presidential advisor said Friday a fresh Syria assault would shut down an important transit route linking the Islamic State group's "capital" in Raqa with the heart of Europe.

As Syrian opposition forces encircled Manbij, Obama's anti-Islamic State envoy Brett McGurk painted the town near the Turkish border as an important terror transit point.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault voiced outrage on Friday after the Syrian regime barrel-bombed Daraya just as aid workers were distributing the first food supplies to the besieged town in years.

Ayrault accused Damascus of "extraordinary duplicity", saying the regime had finally granted access to aid convoys after heavy international pressure "and then the bombing restarted."

Tunisia's toppled leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali filed a complaint on Friday against a private television station in an attempt to stop a comedian impersonating him, his lawyer said.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault called Friday for calm to resolve an angry row between Saudi Arabia and the United Nations over the blacklisting of the Saudi-led coalition bombing Yemen.

Ayrault said France could help defuse tensions following a U.N. decision to remove the coalition from a list of child rights violators.

Decomposing carcasses, a forlorn tiger and cramped cages were among the "heartbreaking" sights greeting an international veterinary charity on a mission Friday to a zoo in war-battered and impoverished Gaza.

Israel's decision to bar Palestinians from entering its territory following the Tel Aviv attack could raise tensions and lead to more violence, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault warned Friday.

An Israeli police officer inadvertently invited a Palestinian gunman into his home after the Tel Aviv shooting thinking he was a civilian fleeing the scene of the attack, media reported Friday.

Syria's regime bombarded a rebel-held town outside the capital Friday, a resident and a monitor said, preventing besieged residents from receiving food aid after its first such delivery in years.

The Israeli army's decision to block Palestinians from entering Israel following a deadly attack in Tel Aviv may amount to collective punishment, the U.N. said Friday, criticizing the move.

Iraq's elite counter terrorism service moved to within three kilometers of central Fallujah Friday and consolidated positions in the south of the city, the operation's commander said.

Speaking to Agence France Presse from the edge of the city's Shuhada neighborhood, Lieutenant General Abdelwahab al-Saadi said the operation to retake one of the Islamic State group's most emblematic bastions was progressing well.