Syria's ruling Baath party and its allies have won a majority in parliamentary elections held across government-held areas of the war-torn country, results announced Tuesday showed.

Ailing Saudi King Salman chaired a virtual cabinet meeting from a hospital office late Tuesday, a day after he was admitted due to gall bladder inflammation, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

A German national was kidnapped late Monday outside her office in central Baghdad, a security source and a friend told AFP.

With monikers as divergent as the "Professor" and the "Destroyer", the Islamic State group's new head has a reputation for brutality, but otherwise remains largely an enigma.

Vote counting was under way Tuesday in Syria after reruns in five polling stations delayed the results of parliamentary polls guaranteed to renew the ruling party's hegemony.

Five Iran-backed fighters were killed in an Israeli missile strike south of the Syrian capital, a Britain-based war monitor said on Tuesday.

The Syrian military said the country's air defenses responded on Monday to Israeli air raids in south Damascus that caused only material damage, and residents said loud explosions rocked the capital.

It was not clear what the targets were. The air raids, which came just before 10 p.m. (1900 GMT), continued for more than 15 minutes. Residents reported hearing at least four explosions in the capital.

Egypt's parliament on Monday greenlighted a possible deployment of troops outside its borders, after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi spoke of potential military operations in neighboring Libya.

Iraqi Kurdish authorities on Monday denied handing over to Turkey the niece of an influential Syrian Kurdish official wanted by Ankara, as claimed by her family.

Turkey on Monday urged an "immediate" end to the support for rebel commander Khalifa Haftar in Libya after trilateral talks held in Ankara between Libyan, Maltese and Turkish officials.