Baghdad's Green Zone has been a barometer for tension and conflict in Iraq for nearly two decades.

The 4-square mile (10-square kilometer) heavily guarded strip on the banks of the Tigris River was known as "Little America" following the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. It then became a hated symbol of the country's inequality, fueling the perception among Iraqis that their government is out of touch.

Human Rights Watch on Friday condemned France's "outsourcing" of trials of Islamic State group suspects held in Iraq where seven of its nationals have this week been sentenced to death.

Tehran accused Riyadh Friday of "sowing division" in the region to Israel's advantage, after the kingdom hosted summits of Gulf and Arab leaders to rally support against the Islamic republic.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman opened an emergency summit of Arab leaders in Islam's holiest city of Mecca on Friday with a call for the international community to use all means to confront Iran, but he also said the kingdom remains committed to peace.

King Salman delivered his remarks at Arab summits in Mecca that were hastily convened after a spike in tensions between Saudi Arabia and its rival Iran.

A Palestinian teenager was shot dead by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said. 

The United Nations will not be taking part in a conference in Bahrain to present the economic aspects of a US peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians, a spokesman said Thursday.

Regime air strikes on a jihadist enclave in northwest Syria killed seven civilians on Thursday, a monitor said, the latest deaths in a bloody wave of government attacks. 

A U.S.-led conference on economic aspects of a Middle East peace plan will go ahead next month in Bahrain despite Israel's snap elections, the State Department said Thursday.

Nearly 150 migrants from East Africa, including 65 minors and 13 babies under one, were rescued from conflict-torn Libya and airlifted to Rome on Thursday by the U.N. refugee agency.

"Due to the violent clashes and deteriorating security conditions in Tripoli, 149 refugees and vulnerable asylum seekers were evacuated and transferred to Rome," the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.

Uzbekistan on Thursday said it had repatriated 156 citizens, mostly women and children, caught up in unspecified Middle East armed conflicts, a day after Kurdish authorities in Syria said they had handed over scores of Uzbeks linked to IS.