Escalating attacks on the Iraqi capital's few liquor stores have terrified shop-owners who fear hardline Islamists are flexing their muscle against alcohol consumption.

While much of the world fears Covid-19, Iraqis have mostly stopped wearing facemasks as they worry more about the pandemic's economic impact than the virus itself.

The UN Security Council on Tuesday called for all mercenaries and foreign fighters to leave Libya, in a unanimous statement that included Russia, which is accused of enabling a Russian contractor to send paramilitaries.

Algerian security forces have arrested four Islamists, while another heavily armed militant handed himself in, the defense ministry said in a statement Tuesday.

The Trump administration on Tuesday slapped sanctions on an alleged Iranian-backed Shiite group in Bahrain that it accuses of trying to overthrow Bahrain's government and plotting terrorist attacks on Americans in the country, which is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

The State and Treasury departments announced the sanctions as part of an administration-wide push to ramp up pressure on Iran before President Donald Trump leaves office next month. The sanctions freeze any assets the Saraya al-Mukhtar group has within U.S. jurisdictions and bar Americans from doing any business with it or its members.

Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law and advisor, will visit Israel and Morocco next week to discuss the normalization of ties between the two countries, a U.S. official told AFP Tuesday. 

An Iraqi anti-government protester was shot dead in east Baghdad by masked gunmen on Tuesday evening, according to a security source, a medic and an activist network.

Israel's Defense Ministry said Tuesday it successfully conducted a series of live fire drills with its multi-range missile-defense system, providing protection against threats posed by arch-enemy Iran and its proxies along Israel's northern and southern borders.

Defense officials said it was the first time they have conducted an integrated test bringing together the various components. They are the "Arrow," which intercepts long-range missiles; "David's Sling," meant to shoot down medium-range missiles; and the "Iron Dome," which has been used for years to defend against incoming rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.

Jordan announced late Monday that it had approved emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, as the United States kicked off a mass vaccination drive.

Was it real?

It's all been erased so completely, so much blood has been shed and destruction wreaked over the past decade. The idea that there was a moment when millions across the Middle East wanted freedom and change so much that they took to the streets seems like romantic nostalgia.