Turkish-Russian joint patrols will start in Syria on Friday, the Turkey's president said Wednesday, a day after a deadline for the withdrawal of Syrian Kurdish fighters expired under a deal between Ankara and Moscow. 

"We will start the joint work on the ground on Friday, namely we are starting the joint patrols," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised speech to parliament.

The future of Iraq's embattled premier was in the hands of his onetime parliamentary backers Wednesday, as they deliberated over his ouster after mass anti-government protests that have left over 240 dead. 

Massive rallies broke out in Iraq's capital and south this month against corruption and unemployment, spiralling into angry calls for a total overhaul of the political system.

The armies of Syria and Turkey traded deadly fire Tuesday for the first time since Ankara launched an anti-Kurdish offensive in early October, as Russia announced Kurdish forces had withdrawn from the border area.

One of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's last audio messages was an appeal for his followers to do everything in their power to free Islamic State detainees and the women being held in jails and camps in northeastern Syria.

With news of the extremist group's leader's death, Kurdish security forces worried about the possibility of attacks or rioting have been tightening security at these facilities, which hold more than 80,000 members and supporters of the militant group, including women and children.

US officials have said the body of Islamic State group chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was buried at sea, as fresh details surfaced about the US special forces operation that led to his death over the weekend.

Syrian Kurds claimed to be a key source of the intelligence that led Americans to Baghdadi after years of tracking the man behind a five-year reign of terror across much of Iraq and Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday accused Iran of wanting to strike Israel with precision-guided missiles from Yemen as he urged U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to further pressure Tehran.

Saudi Arabia said Monday that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had distorted the image of Islam, and hailed his killing by US special forces in northwest Syria.

Students and schoolchildren hit the streets of Baghdad and southern Iraq on Monday to join escalating calls for the government to quit, defying the education minister, legal threats and even their parents.

In the middle of the night amid the olive trees of northwest Syria, Abu Ahmad heard soldiers "speaking a foreign language" attack the home next door.

Iraq's intelligence services provided U.S. forces with the location of elusive Islamic State group chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ahead of the raid that killed him, the security forces said Sunday.