Islamic State group fighters seized five villages from rebel forces in Syria's northern Aleppo province overnight and entered the outskirts of a key opposition bastion there, a monitor said Thursday.

The jihadist group seized three villages near the town of Marea and entered its southern outskirts, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged the Saudi-led coalition battling Iran-backed rebels in Yemen to stop using cluster munitions, saying it had uncovered new evidence of their devastating impact.

The New York-based watchdog said dozens of civilians were killed or wounded in at least seven such apparent attacks in the northwestern province of Hajja between late April and mid-July.

An apparent U.S. drone strike killed five al-Qaida suspects in the extremist network's southeastern stronghold of Mukalla, a government official said Thursday.

"A drone targeted a house where al-Qaida militants were gathered for a meeting, destroying it and killing all five inside" late on Wednesday, said the local official, who asked to remain anonymous.

A new 48-hour truce between Syrian regime forces and rebels in three towns entered into force on Thursday after negotiations, a mediator and a monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said that fighting and rocket fire had stopped in the rebel bastion of Zabadani and the besieged government-held villages of Fuaa and Kafraya.

An Israeli air strike hit a Hamas facility in Gaza overnight after Palestinians fired a rocket into southern Israel, the army said in a statement early Thursday.

"In response, the Israel Air Force targeted a Hamas weapon manufacturing facility located in the central Gaza Strip," it said.

Iraqi President Fuad Masum said Wednesday Iraq's constitution should be amended rather than bypassed, in an apparent criticism of the premier's plan to abolish the constitutionally mandated vice presidency.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered Iraq's three vice presidential positions to be scrapped and their funding reallocated as part of a reform drive aimed at curbing rampant corruption and government waste in response to weeks of protests.

The United Nations peace envoy for Libya said Wednesday he was confident that the past seven months of talks will yield an agreement on ending the violence in the north African country.

"I am increasingly confident that the process is finally drawing to its final stages," Bernardino Leon told the U.N. Security Council.

Queen Rania of Jordan said Wednesday that moderate Muslims were not doing enough to fight against IS jihadists and their "diabolical ideology."

Speaking at a major French business gathering in Jouy-en-Josas near Paris, the 44-year-old said helping the Middle East's youth was crucial in the fight against the extremist group, which controls swathes of Iraq and Syria on Jordan's doorstep.

Five people were killed and 20 wounded Wednesday when rebel rocket fire hit a petrol station in a government-held part of Syria's central Homs city, state news agency SANA said.

The missile fire set fire to a tanker as it was unloading in the Inshaat neighborhood of Homs, which is the provincial capital and largely under government control, SANA said.

Al-Qaida militants on Wednesday blew up an army headquarters and set up checkpoints in the jihadist network's southeastern stronghold of Mukalla, officials in Hadramawt province said.

The militants had deployed in force across Mukalla after receiving information of a possible operation by a Saudi-led military coalition to help government loyalists retake the provincial capital, the officials said.