The verdict in the case of prominent Syrian human rights activist and dissident Mazen Darwish has been postponed until September 16, a lawyer close to the case said Monday.

Darwish and fellow activists Hani Zaitani and Hussein Ghreir were arrested in February 2012 and accused of "promoting terrorist acts".

Libyan pro-government forces on Monday battled jihadists from the Islamic State group in second city Benghazi, where five pro-government fighters have been killed in two days of violence, media said.

Four loyalist soldiers died and 22 were wounded on Sunday in clashes with IS in the southern district of Hawari, the pro-government LANA news agency reported.

Israel's Supreme Court on Monday confirmed a one-year jail sentence handed down to a Druze former MP for visiting Syria, an "enemy country."

Said Naffaa had appealed a September 2014 verdict sentencing him to 18 months for traveling to Syria and making contact with a "foreign agent."

Saudi authorities said Monday that three Canadians, one Pakistani and a Nigerian woman were among 10 people killed in a fire at a residential complex rented by oil giant Saudi Aramco at the weekend.

The civil defense revised down from 11 the death toll for Sunday's blaze at the complex in the kingdom's Eastern Province, in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

The Islamic State group strung up four Iraqi Shiite fighters with chains and burned them alive, according to footage posted online, the latest gruesome execution video from the jihadists.

The victims -- identified as fighters in the pro-government Popular Mobilization forces from southern Iraq -- were suspended from a swingset-like metal structure by chains attached to their hands and feet, then set on fire.

The Islamic State group battled Syrian rebel forces in a Damascus neighborhood on Monday, bringing the jihadists closer than ever to the center of the capital, a monitoring group said.

IS militants fought street battles against Islamist rebels in Asali, part of the capital's southern Qadam district, after seizing two streets there over the weekend, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A major hospital in Yemen's rebel-held capital is on the verge of shutting down due to a supply shortage caused by a pro-government coalition blockade, Save the Children has warned. 

"Critical fuel shortages and a lack of medical supplies could force the Al-Sabeen Hospital to shut its doors within 48 hours," the humanitarian organisation said late Sunday.

A powerful blast in the ruins of Syria's ancient Palmyra raised fears Monday that the Islamic State group has damaged another of the Middle East's most treasured heritage sites.

Both Syria's antiquities chief and a monitor reported Sunday's explosion in the UNESCO World Heritage site, but there was conflicting information on the fate of its famed Temple of Bel.

Australia on Monday urged more European nations to begin air strikes against Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq as a way of tackling the escalating refugee crisis gripping the continent.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said jihadists were responsible for driving hundreds of thousands of migrants to Europe and a broadening of the coalition fighting them was necessary.

Egypt's legislative elections, the first since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took office, are to be contested in phases starting October 17, the electoral commission announced on Sunday.

Analysts say the polls, with Sisi loyalists heavily favored to emerge the big winners, will serve to appease Egypt's backers in the West who see the president as a rampart against jihadist violence despite concerns over repression that has eliminated any meaningful opposition.