Twenty-three civilians including nine children were killed in air strikes on a town in eastern Syria held by the Islamic State jihadist group on Thursday, a monitor said.

Forty people were killed in fighting between Shiite Huthi rebels and pro-government forces around southwest Yemen's main city of Taez, military sources said Thursday.

Israel's hardline Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has ordered a boycott of a U.N. special envoy after his criticism of Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank, Israeli media reported Thursday.

An Arab Israeli lawmaker has caused an uproar after describing ailing Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres as covered "head to toe" in Palestinian blood.

France on Thursday called for Washington to disclose details of the Russian-U.S. brokered Syria deal to its allies bombing jihadists in the war-torn country. 

Russia on Thursday said Syrian regime forces have begun pulling back from around a key road into the ravaged city of Aleppo, freeing up the way for aid deliveries. 

Libya's National Oil Company said Thursday it would immediately resume oil exports from two key ports captured this week by forces opposed to the country's unity government.

Russia on Thursday accused Washington of failing to meet its obligations under the Syria ceasefire agreement, while criticizing US officials for voicing skepticism over cooperation with Moscow.

Russian military spokesman Igor Konashenkov slammed the US for what he called "rhetorical fog" intended "to hide the fact that it is not fulfilling its part of the obligations."

The U.N. Syria envoy called on the Damascus government to let life-saving aid into the country "immediately" to take advantage of a truce which he said was holding "by and large."

Staffan de Mistura said that Damascus had promised to send authorization letters clearing large-scale humanitarian convoys to deploy but that those permits had "not been received".

Turkish air strikes in northern Syria in late August killed 24 civilians, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday, accusing Ankara of failing to properly identify the target and pro-Kurdish forces of grouping fighters together with civilians.

Activists had said at the time that the air strikes on August 24, in the early stages of Turkey's campaign in Syria, killed civilians. But Turkish state media said that 25 "terrorists" were killed.