Seventeen gunmen were killed in two days of clashes in southern Syria's Sweida province between groups loyal to the Damascus regime and others opposing it, a war monitor said Wednesday.

Ten loyalists and seven opposition fighters died in fighting on Tuesday and Wednesday in two villages in the Druze-majority province, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, raising the toll from 10 a day earlier.

The Emirati and Iranian foreign ministers have held a telephone conversation and discussed boosting ties, UAE state media reported Wednesday, as the Gulf Arab country considers sending an ambassador back to Tehran.

Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian discussed ways of "boosting bilateral relations and areas of cooperation for the benefit of both countries", the UAE's state news agency WAM reported.

Rockets hit the vicinity of the Turkish consulate in Iraq's main northern city of Mosul causing damage but no casualties, Iraqi and Turkish sources said Wednesday.

The overnight fire came after deadly shelling blamed on the Turkish army killed nine civilians last week, prompting anti-Turkish protests in cities across Iraq.

A dispute between Iraq and Turkey over a recent deadly attack in Iraq's northern Kurdish region has escalated at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

Iraq's foreign minister demandedthe withdrawal of all Turkish troops from his country, while Turkey's deputy ambassador said his government will keep pursing fighters it considers terrorists who take refuge in Iraq.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with the family of Palestinian-American reporter Shireen Abu Akleh killed while covering an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank.

The State Department said Blinken met with relatives of Al Jazeera reporter and vowed that the U.S. would demand "accountability" for her death.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has arrived in Greece on his first trip to a European Union country since the killing in 2018 of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi that triggered widespread international condemnation.

Bin Salman, who is traveling with a large government and business delegation, met with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and will attend the signing of a series of bilateral investment and defense agreements.

Morocco's navy intercepted more than 350 illegal migrants, including four children, in waters off its coast, a military official said on Tuesday.

The 359 people rescued between Saturday and Monday had been "aboard makeshift boats, kayaks or swimming" in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, the unnamed official said, quoted by MAP news agency.

The Israeli military demolished the homes on Tuesday of two Palestinians suspected of killing an Israeli security guard in a West Bank settlement in April.

Vyacheslav Golev was killed in a shooting at the entrance of a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank on April 29. The Palestinian militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

Two U.S. Coast Guard fast response cutters have arrived in Beirut, Lebanon for a scheduled port visit, marking their arrival to the Middle East after departing the United States and transiting the Mediterranean Sea.

Fast response cutters USCGC John Scheuerman (WPC 1146) and USCGC Clarence Sutphin Jr. (WPC 1147) are the newest additions to a slate of Coast Guard ships supporting U.S. 5th Fleet from Bahrain, the U.S. Navy said in a statement.

Tunisian President Kais Saied early Tuesday celebrated the almost certain victory of the "yes" vote in a referendum on a new constitution that strengthens the powers of the head of state and risks the return of authoritarian rule in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.

The referendum, held a year to the day after Saied sacked the government and froze parliament in what rivals have called a coup, saw at least 27.5 percent of 9.3 million registered voters cast ballots, Tunisia's ISIE electoral commission said late Monday after polls closed.