The United States said Thursday it was assessing fast moving events in Yemen that have seen the cabinet and U.S.-backed president resign, but still supports a peaceful political transition.

"Our team is seeking confirmation of all of the reports," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, adding that so far there was no move to close the U.S. embassy in the capital, Sanaa.

Egypt's public prosecutor Thursday ordered the release of 100 students arrested in a crackdown on protests since late 2013, ahead of the fourth anniversary of a popular uprising.

The students, who have not been formally charged, will be set free out of "concern for their academic future", the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Yemeni leader Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi offered to resign on Thursday amid a standoff with a powerful Shiite militia in control of the capital, throwing his country deeper into political turmoil.

In his letter of resignation Hadi, a key U.S. ally in the fight against al-Qaida, said he could no longer stay in office as the country was in "total deadlock".

Iraq on Thursday called on the international community to provide more weapons to help it push back Islamic State amid growing fears the jihadists are planning to bring their fight to the streets of Europe.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, speaking in London at a meeting of the international coalition, also warned of the impact of falling oil prices on his country's ability to defeat IS.

U.S. President Barack Obama will not meet Benjamin Netanyahu when the Israeli prime minister makes a controversial visit to the United States in early March, the White House said Thursday. 

National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said it was a "matter of long-standing practice and principle" that the president not meet candidates or incumbent leaders while they on the campaign trail.

U.S.-led aircraft hammered Islamic State militants in northern Iraq over the past 24 hours, the American military said Thursday, as Kurdish forces pressed an offensive against the jihadists in the area.

U.S. and coalition bombers, fighter jets and drones carried out a total of 31 air raids since Wednesday morning, including ten in Syria and 21 in Iraq, according to the American military command overseeing "Operation Inherent Resolve" out of headquarters in Kuwait.

An Italian doctor in his seventies who worked in a hospital in Tripoli has gone missing in Libya, Italian media reported on Thursday.

The foreign ministry in Rome told AFP it had activated "all the search channels possible" and was "addressing the issue with the usual discretion".

Armed men shot dead Thursday the head of security in the Islamist-held coastal city of Sirte, hometown of slain dictator Moamer Kadhafi, a security source said.

Colonel Senussi Kaiba was killed along with his driver when gunmen opened fire at their car in a residential area of the city, the source said.

A group of about 20 Iraqis burnt the French flag near the country's embassy in Baghdad on Thursday in protest at a Paris weekly's "abuse" of the Prophet Mohammed.

French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has printed cartoons depicting Mohammed, including one on the cover of its "survivors" issue published after jihadist gunmen attacked its Paris offices, killing 12 people.

Rights group Amnesty International said Thursday that Saudi Arabia would postpone the flogging of blogger Raef Badawi, whose case has sparked international criticism, for a second week on medical grounds.

"The planned flogging of Raef Badawi will be suspended this Friday after a medical committee assessed that he should not undergo a second round of lashes on health grounds," the London-based watchdog said in a statement.