Islamic State group militants killed seven members of Iraq's security forces Friday during a raid south of the jihadist bastion Mosul which pro-government troops are battling to recapture, officials said.

The attack comes in the third week of the massive operation to retake Iraq's second city from IS, which has already carried out diversionary attacks in other areas.

A showdown over shawarma has come to Dubai.

A state-owned newspaper reported on Wednesday that nearly half of all shawarma stands in Dubai either will be shut down or have stopped selling the popular Mideast street food.

Swiss officials say police are conducting a raid in a mosque in the northern city of Winterthur.

Officials say that the police operation at An Nur mosque was continuing Wednesday morning, and that a regional prosecutor based in nearby Zurich would make a statement shortly.

Lebanese security forces have tightened security in downtown Beirut where legislators are to convene to elect a new president.

Christian leader Michel Aoun, a former army commander and strong ally of Hizbullah, is widely expected to win a two-third majority vote to become Lebanon's 13th president at Monday's session of Parliament.

Egyptian security officials say a roadside bomb killed two soldiers and wounded four others in the restive northeastern region of the Sinai Peninsula.

The officials say the bomb struck an armored vehicle carrying soldiers to Sheikh Zuwaid near the city of el-Arish city on Saturday. The four soldiers, they said, are in a critical condition and the death toll could rise.

Two Indian soldiers have been killed in fighting with Pakistani soldiers and suspected militants along the volatile frontier in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said Saturday.

An army officer said militants overnight ambushed an Indian army patrol, killing one, while Pakistani soldiers provided covering fire near Machil sector along the Line of Control dividing the disputed region between India and Pakistan.

Pilots were forced to abort a takeoff and evacuate passengers from a burning American Airlines flight on a runway at Chicago O'Hare International Airport after the airliner experienced what a federal official said was a rare and serious type of engine failure.

American Airlines Flight 383 to Miami experienced an "uncontained engine failure," in which engine parts break off and are spewed outside the engine, the official said. The official wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the incident and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The danger of such a failure is that engine pieces effectively become shrapnel and can cause extensive damage to the aircraft.

Iraqi paramilitary forces launched an operation Saturday to cut the Islamic State group's supply lines between its Mosul bastion and neighbouring Syria, opening a new front in the nearly two-week-old offensive.

Forces from the Hashed al-Shaabi, a paramilitary umbrella organisation dominated by Iran-backed Shiite militias, have largely been on the sidelines since the launch of the  operation to retake Mosul.

Israel has expanded the fishing zone off the Gaza coast to allow Palestinian fishermen to sail out further.

COGAT, the Israeli defense body that handles civilian issues with the Palestinians, announced the new limits Thursday saying they would stay in effect for the coming two months to coincide with the fishing season. The new maritime perimeter expands the fishing zone off parts of Gaza by three more nautical miles to nine.

International agencies in Lebanon have begun distributing aid to Syrian refugees through a single debit card.