Dozens of civilians at a checkpoint into Raqa were pleading to be let through to inspect their homes when an explosion ripped through the air: one resident had slipped in.

Iraqi forces set a tight deadline Friday for Kurdish fighters to withdraw from an area on the Turkish border that is critical for oil exports, a government source told AFP.

Russia on Friday criticised a United Nations report which blamed a sarin gas attack in Syria on Bashar al-Assad's regime, with a deputy foreign minister saying it contained inconsistencies and unverified evidence.

Human Rights Watch on Friday urged the international community to slap sanctions on the Syrian government after UN investigators blamed President Bashar al-Assad's regime for a sarin gas attack that killed dozens.

Experts from the U.N. and the chemical weapons watchdog are blaming Syria's government for a sarin nerve gas attack that killed over 90 people last April.

Their report, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, says leaders of the expert body are "confident that the Syrian Arab Republic is responsible for the release of sarin at Khan Sheikhoun on April 4, 2017."

Iraqi forces on Thursday recaptured from the Islamic State group several military bases and villages as they launched a push to wipe out remnants of the jihadists' self-styled caliphate in the country.

The U.N. Security Council on Thursday urged the Iraqi government and regional leaders in Kurdistan to set a timetable for talks to end a crisis triggered by last month's Kurdish referendum on independence.

The appeal from the top U.N. body came after Baghdad dismissed an offer from Iraqi Kurdish leaders to freeze the outcome of the referendum, which delivered a resounding yes to independence, and hold talks.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson doubled down Thursday on Washington's call for Syrian President Bashar Assad to leave power, looking past recent battlefield gains by his Russian-backed forces to insist that "the reign of the Assad family is coming to an end."

Tillerson made the comments after what he called a "fruitful" meeting with U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, who later announced plans to resume U.N.-mediated peace Syrian talks on Nov. 28. It will be the eighth such round under his mediation in Geneva since early 2016.

Dozens of detainees at a military camp controlled by pro-government forces in southern Yemen are on hunger strike in protest against conditions at the facility, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, whose forces Thursday battled jihadists in the west of the country and Kurds in the north, won the support of Iranian leaders at talks in Tehran.