Iran's foreign ministry on Wednesday denied any link with groups targeted by U.S. air strikes in Syria, contradicting a claim by Washington.

France has made several attempts over the years to heal the wounds with former colony Algeria, but it refuses to "apologize or repent" for the 132 years of often brutal rule that ended in 1962.

French President Emmanuel Macron heads to Algeria on Thursday seeking to soothe festering diplomatic tensions with an increasingly important supplier of gas to Europe. 

The U.S. military said early Wednesday it carried out airstrikes in eastern Syria that targeted areas used by militias backed by Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

There was no immediate acknowledgment by Syria's state-run media of the strikes hitting Deir Ez-Zor. Iran as well did not acknowledge the attack.

Turkey said Tuesday that its restoration of full diplomatic relations with Israel did not mean a shift in Middle Eastern priorities as it prepared to welcome Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

The Palestinian leader was due to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later on Tuesday on his second visit to Turkey in a year.

Several hundred supporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr launched a sit-in outside Iraq's top judicial body on Tuesday, ratcheting up tensions in a showdown with a rival Shiite alliance.

The Sadrists, who have already been camping outside parliament for the past three weeks, pitched tents outside the gates of the body's Baghdad headquarters, Iraq's official INA news agency reported.

A Palestinian hunger striker held by Israel is in critical condition and could die at any moment from a range of maladies, a doctor who has examined him said, after the country's Supreme Court rejected an appeal to release the man.

Khalil Awadeh, 40, has been on a hunger strike since March to protest his so-called administrative detention, an Israeli policy of holding Palestinians for alleged involvement in militant activity. Detainees can be held without charge or trial for months or years at a time, without seeing the purported evidence against them. Israel describes the policy as a necessary security measure, while critics say it is a violation of due process.

For Mariam Habeib, the grief seems never ending: She lost her older sister, two nieces and a niece's three young children in an intense fire that engulfed a church in Egypt's capital during a recent service and killed 41 people.

The Coptic Christian community is one of the world's oldest, and no stranger to sadness. A minority in Egypt, Coptic Orthodox Christians have faced deadly attacks by Islamic extremists, restrictions on church building and outbursts of sectarian-motivated violence in recent decades. The most recent tragedy brought a flood of sympathy from around the country.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt has met with the leaders of Iraq, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, his office said, as world powers and Iran seek to end 16 months of negotiations over the revival of Tehran's landmark nuclear deal.

El-Sissi and Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan received King Abdulla II of Jordan, Iraqi caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi and Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa at the airport in the Mediterranean city of el-Alamein.

Two rival Iranian Kurdish opposition parties based in northern Iraq have announced in a joint statement their reunification 16 years after they split over internal disputes.