Egypt's foreign minister and intelligence chief headed Thursday to Sudan for talks with government officials facing deadly protests and calls for President Omar al-Bashir to step down over price hikes.

The United Arab Emirates will reopen its embassy in Damascus Thursday, an official said, seven years after it severed ties with Syria over the violent repression that triggered the war.

Thousands of civilians, mostly relatives of jihadist fighters, are fleeing the Islamic State group's last stronghold in eastern Syria, a war monitor said on Thursday.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 11,500 people have fled the area since Kurdish-led forces broke IS defences and took the jihadists' main hub of Hajin two weeks ago.

A princess who tried to flee the United Arab Emirates months ago is "a troubled young woman", a former UN human rights chief said on Thursday after meeting her this month.

President Donald Trump used a lightning visit to Iraq -- his first with US troops in a conflict zone since being elected -- to defend the withdrawal from Syria and to declare an end to America's role as the global "policeman."

Moscow on Wednesday said Israel had violated Syria's sovereignty with airstrikes the day before, after Israel and Damascus blamed each other for the hostilities.

Egypt's deposed president Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday asked current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for "permission" to disclose sensitive information in the retrial of ousted Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi. 

Suicide attackers stormed the Libyan foreign ministry in the capital Tripoli on Tuesday, killing at least three people including a senior civil servant in an attack claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

Pro-Turkish armed groups have reinforced their presence on the outskirts of the city of Manbij in northern Syria as Ankara threatens a new offensive against Kurdish forces, sources said Wednesday.

Israel's government decided this week to dissolve parliament and hold early elections on April 9, seven months before their November due date.