The EU is not considering sanctions against Russia for its role in Syria but further measures against its ally Damascus are possible, the bloc's foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini said Monday.

A top court in Bahrain on Monday overturned a nine-year jail term against Shiite opposition chief cleric Ali Salman, convicted of inciting hatred and calling for forceful regime change.

The court of the cassation ordered a retrial of the head of the Al-Wefaq political formation before the appeals court, said a judicial source.

The operation Iraqi forces launched on Monday to retake the city of Mosul from the Islamic State group could last weeks and "possibly longer", a top US general said.

Iraqi forces advanced Monday after launching an offensive aimed at retaking Mosul and dealing a death blow to the Islamic State group's "caliphate" in the city where it was declared two years ago.

The start of the long-awaited assault raised deep concerns for hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in Iraq's second-largest city, with aid groups warning of a massive humanitarian crisis.

Russian President Vladimir Putin took a jab at France on Sunday, saying it was "not so involved" in efforts to end the war in Syria amid a spike in tensions between the two countries. 

The United States, Britain and the U.N. peace envoy to Yemen on Sunday urged the warring parties in the country's civil war to declare a ceasefire they said could start within days.

Iraqi aircraft dropped "tens of thousands" of leaflets, some bearing safety instructions for Mosul residents, ahead of an operation to retake the city from jihadists, the military said.

Kuwait's emir dissolved parliament Sunday following tensions between lawmakers and the government over a petrol price hike, setting the stage for early elections within two months.

The surprise move came after lawmakers in the oil-rich emirate strongly opposed the government's unilateral hike of petrol prices -- one of a host of austerity measures following a sharp drop in crude revenues.

A suicide bombing targeting Shiite Muslims killed at least two people in Baghdad on Sunday, officials said, a day after the deadliest attack to hit the Iraqi capital in months.

Yemen's Shiite Huthi rebels Sunday demanded an international probe into an air strike that killed more than 140 people at a funeral, after a Saudi-led Arab coalition admitted "wrongly" hitting it.