A two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict must include exchanges of people and land to ensure the two sides are completely separated, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday.

The first four months of the Iraqi offensive on Mosul were marked by relatively low displacement but the civilians who remain in the city's west face more dangers than ever.

The U.S.-led coalition assisting Iraqi forces in their war on the Islamic State group on Sunday praised the militias involved in the fighting, despite some of those groups' links to Iran.

Iraqi government forces launched a major offensive to recapture the city of Mosul from the Islamic State group on October 17, 2016.

Rescue workers from Syria's White Helmets -- the subjects of an Oscar-nominated documentary -- said on Saturday they have received U.S. visas to attend next week's prestigious Academy Awards ceremony. 

Iraqi forces launched an offensive Sunday on jihadists defending Mosul's west bank, in what could be the most brutal fighting yet in a four-month-old operation on the country's second city.

They swiftly retook at least five villages and set their sights on Mosul airport, which lies just south of the city, marking a new phase in Iraq's largest military operation in years.

In the aftermath of a barrel bomb attack in Syria's Idlib, nine-year-old Abdel Basset al-Satuf tries to sit up, his legs blown off, and screams "Daddy, pick me up!"

Leaders of the Islamic State group are leaving their Syrian stronghold of Raqa, fleeing in the face of the Arab-Kurd offensive backed by the international coalition, the U.S. Defense Department said Friday.

"We are starting to see now that a lot of senior ISIS leaders, a lot of their bureaucrats... are beginning the process of leaving Raqa," said Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis, using an alternate acronym for the jihadist group.

A jihadist group has executed 41 fighters from al-Qaida's former Syria affiliate and allied factions in infighting between the extremists in Syria's Idlib province, a monitor said on Friday.

Thousands of Iraqis, mostly supporters of cleric Moqtada Sadr, held a silent protest in central Baghdad on Friday, a week after a rally demanding electoral reform turned violent.