A Kuwaiti court has acquitted two former ministers and their co-defendants of the corruption charges they faced in an explosive case that tarnished the government and was widely seen as a test of accountability.

The charges against Kuwait's former Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak Al Sabah and his ally, former Interior Minister Sheikh Khalid al-Jarrah Al Sabah, along with other officials, concerned the embezzlement of $790 million that had gone missing from a military aid fund years ago.

Iran's foreign ministry strongly condemned on Wednesday the killing of two Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers in an Israeli missile attack on the Syrian capital.

The foreign ministry's website quoted ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh as saying revenge for the Monday strike will definitely be taken.

Libya's east-based army rounded up at least 50 people in a coastal city following a prison escape earlier this year, a rights group said Tuesday.

Human Rights Watch said in a statement that an armed group affiliated with the self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces launched the crackdown after five prisoners escaped from a prison in the city of Derna on Jan. 16.

Libya's national oil company said it resumed oil production Tuesday from the country's largest field three days after an armed group shut it down.

The state-run National Oil Corporation said pump valves at the Sharara field were opened a few minutes after midnight local time.

Israeli troops on Tuesday demolished the homes of two Palestinians accused of carrying out a deadly shooting attack in the occupied West Bank last year, the military said.

The residences of Mohammed Jaradat and Jit Jaradat in the West Bank were demolished early Tuesday, the military said. The men are accused of shooting at a car driving near the outpost of Homesh, killing a Jewish seminary student and wounding two others. The military said earlier the demolition took place late Monday.

In a neighborhood of Iraq's capital, a gigantic poster of Vladimir Putin with the words, "We support Russia," was up for few hours before a security force arrived and hurriedly took it down. Then came the security directive: All public displays of Putin's pictures shall be banned.

Such wrangling shows the deep divisions over the Ukraine war in the Middle East, where Moscow has embedded itself as a key player in recent years, making powerful friends among state and non-state actors while America's influence waned.

With his surprise visit to Moscow on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is assuming the unlikely role of mediator between Russia and Ukraine.

Bennett, who has helmed the country for less than a year and is largely untested on the world stage, positioned Israel in an uncomfortable middle ground between Russia and Ukraine in the lead up to the war, creating a launching pad from which to emerge as a player in diplomatic efforts.

Russia is recruiting Syrian fighters experienced in urban combat as it ramps up its assault on Ukraine, according to U.S. officials quoted by the Wall Street Journal. 

Moscow, which launched an invasion into its Eastern European neighbor on February 24, has in recent days recruited fighters from Syria hoping they can help take Kyiv, four U.S. officials told the U.S. daily. 

Fifteen soldiers have died in an Islamic State group attack on an army bus in the central Syrian desert, a war monitor said, as state media reported a "terrorist attack".

Despite the fall of IS's "caliphate" in 2019, the group continues to launch deadly attacks from hideouts in the Syrian desert, which extends from the outskirts of the capital Damascus to the Iraqi border.

Israeli missile strikes killed at least two civilians before dawn on Monday near the Syrian capital Damascus, state media reported.

Israel carried out the strikes at around 5:00 a.m. (0300 GMT), hitting positions south of the capital, Syria's official SANA news agency said, citing a military source.