Israeli airstrikes killed two Syrian soldiers and wounded three others when they slammed into an airbase in the province of Homs, a Syrian army statement said.

The statement said Israeli warplanes fired missiles after flying over neighboring Lebanon. It added that some of the missiles were shot down before they hit their targets.

Lebanon has extradited a man said to be a grandnephew of Saddam Hussein to Iraq, where he is accused of involvement in a massacre by the Islamic State group, a security source said.

Bahrain voted Saturday in a parliamentary and local election just hours after hackers targeted government websites in the island kingdom.

The United Nations Friday cautioned that millions of people displaced by conflicts and persecution in the Middle East risk "extreme hardship" as winter approaches.

UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said there was a dire need for more funds to support many displaced people at a time when the coming northern hemisphere winter is expected to be "far more challenging than in recent years". 

The speaker of Tunisia's dissolved parliament and arch-rival of President Kais Saied appeared in court on Thursday as part of a case involving money-laundering and "incitement to violence".

Three years ago, Fadel Abbas marched with tens of thousands of fellow Iraqis chanting for the "fall of the regime" in Baghdad's Tahrir Square, meaning "liberation" in Arabic.

Saudi Arabia has released an American woman it took into custody early this week after she tweeted and otherwise spoke out about her efforts to leave the country with her young Saudi-American daughter, according to a U.S. official and a U.S.-based advocacy group.

Carly Morris was released early Wednesday, after being summoned and taken into custody by Saudi authorities in the north-central city of Buraidah on Monday, according to the Freedom Initiative. The Washington-based group advocates for prisoners it deems wrongfully detained in the Middle East.

Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will receive an official mandate on Sunday to form a new government, Israel's presidency said, following the completion of consultations with lawmakers.

Qatar may hope soccer fans ignore politics at the first World Cup in the Middle East. But Israel and Iran, foes locked in conflicts across the region, are bringing sensitive flashpoints to the tournament's doorstep.

Israel is not competing, but it sees the massive spectacle as a way to further integrate into the Middle East after establishing ties with two of Qatar's Gulf Arab neighbors. Thousands of Israeli tourists, long shunned, are expected to fly to the Qatari capital of Doha on unprecedented direct flights.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced Wednesday that he has submitted new applications for arrest warrants stemming from his investigations of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Libya.

Karim Khan told the U.N. Security Council in the first briefing by an ICC prosecutor from Libyan soil that the applications were submitted confidentially to the court's independent judges, who will determine whether to issue arrest warrants. Therefore, he said, he couldn't provide further details.