An Israeli court on Tuesday turned down a request by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to postpone the opening of his corruption trial next week, a published ruling said.

The unprecedented trial of two alleged former Syrian intelligence officers accused of participating in crimes against humanity will begin in April, a German court said Tuesday.

Two American soldiers fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq were killed during an operation alongside Iraqi forces, the coalition against the jihadists said Monday.

"Two U.S. service members were killed by enemy forces... during a mission to eliminate an ISIS terrorist stronghold in a mountainous area of north central Iraq, March 8," the coalition said in a statement, using an alternative acronym for the jihadist group.

On a Syrian highway, Hussein Abdel Hamid recently found himself trapped inside his car. A US army patrol had encountered Russian tanks down the road, neither allowing the other passage.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Monday for a 45-day delay in his corruption trial due to open March 17, saying prosecutors had not provided all information relevant to the case. 

Talks to form Israel's next government will ramp up again this week, but an agreement to form a coalition may require a political miracle.

Aid agencies are moving to prevent a novel coronavirus outbreak in conflict-plagued northwestern Syria, where damaged health infrastructure and massive displacement make containment a nearly impossible task. 

Saudi authorities have cordoned off eastern Qatif region, a stronghold of the kingdom's Shiite minority, in a bid to contain the fast-spreading coronavirus, the interior ministry said Sunday.

An Iranian commander has been shot dead south of the Syrian capital, a war monitor reported Saturday.

At least 32 people died Saturday after a fuel tanker crashed into two buses and several other vehicles on a road connecting the Syrian capital to Homs province, state media reported.