Saudi Arabia on Thursday said it was creating government bodies to boost oversight of its intelligence operations, in the wake of international outrage over critic Jamal Khashoggi's murder.

The UN Security Council is expected to vote on Friday on sending observers to war-torn Yemen and endorsing the results of recent peace talks in Sweden, according to diplomats.

Kuwaiti authorities have arrested a man who used a drone to smuggle in drugs from a neighboring country, the anti-narcotics department said Thursday. 

It said the department had seized four kilograms (nine pounds) of amphetamine and one kilogram of hashish.

Germany warned Thursday that US President Donald Trump's decision to pull troops out of Syria could endanger a battle against Islamic State militants and jeopardise achievements on the front.

Moroccan investigators said Thursday they have arrested three fugitive suspects in the grisly murder of two Scandinavian hikers as they follow a link to Islamic extremism.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on Thursday vowed to work closer to end the fighting in Syria.

President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw troops from Syria has rattled Washington's Kurdish allies, who are its most reliable partner in Syria and among the most effective ground forces battling the Islamic State group.

Kurds in northern Syria said commanders and fighters met into the night, discussing their response to Wednesday's surprise announcement.

France will maintain its participation in the coalition fighting Islamic State forces in Syria, government officials said Thursday after President Donald Trump surprised Washington's allies by ordering US troops home.

A Yemeni mother who was granted a waiver from President Donald Trump's ban on travel from several Muslim majority countries has arrived in the US to say goodbye to her dying toddler son.

Against the advice of many in his own administration, President Donald Trump is pulling U.S. troops out of Syria. Could a withdrawal from Afghanistan be far behind?

Trump has said his instinct is to quit Afghanistan as a lost cause, but more recently he's suggested a willingness to stay in search of peace with the Taliban. However, the abruptness with which he turned the page on Syria raises questions about whether combat partners like Iraq and Afghanistan should feel confident that he will not pull the plug on them, too.