Cross-border rebel shelling from Yemen killed one person and wounded a mother and child in southern Saudi Arabia on Friday, the kingdom's civil defense said.

The German military on Friday said it had grounded nearly half its fleet of Tornado reconnaissance jets, used in the fight against the Islamic State group, because of a technical defect.

Syrian government troops advanced gradually against rebels inside ravaged second city Aleppo on Friday, as the UN Security Council prepared to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the violence.

The assault on rebel-held districts of the divided city has raised international concern, with UN envoy Staffan de Mistura warning east Aleppo could be "totally destroyed" by year's end.

Israel has deported all but one of a group of women activists who tried to break its decade-long blockade of the Gaza Strip by boat, the interior ministry said Friday.

A ministry spokeswoman said the last activist would leave the country later the same day.

Moroccans voted Friday to elect a new parliament, five years after an Islamist-led government took office following Arab Spring-inspired protests that toppled regimes across the region.

The vote pitted the ruling Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) against the liberal opposition Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), which says it wants to roll back the "Islamization" of Moroccan society.

The U.N. Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Syria on Friday after the U.N. envoy warned that east Aleppo may be totally destroyed in the next few months by the Russian and Syrian air campaign.

France's foreign minister told Russia Friday there was no justification for the fierce assault on Syria's Aleppo, as Moscow said it was ready to "work on" a French-drafted U.N. resolution seeking to allow aid into the besieged city.

Iraqi pro-government tribesmen provided information that resulted in a U.S.-led coalition air strike that killed 21 of their fighters, an Iraqi military command said on Thursday.

Libya, a key springboard for Europe-bound migrants, on Thursday rejected calls from some EU countries to build refugee camps on its shores, saying the bloc could not "shirk its responsibility."

Turkey insisted Thursday that its troops will remain in Iraq despite Baghdad's growing anger ahead of a planned operation to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul from Islamic State jihadists.