Shiite rebels seized a city in central Yemen Wednesday seen as a strategic link to the south, further widening their territory following deadly clashes with tribesmen, security and tribal sources said.

Yemen has been sliding into turmoil since an Arab Spring-inspired uprising ousted strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2012, with armed rivals including the Huthi Shiite rebels and Al-Qaida battling each other.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani suffered a fresh setback on Wednesday when the conservative-dominated parliament rejected his choice for science minister as too close to reformists.

Mahmoud Nili-Ahmadabadi, the pick for minister of science, research and technology, lost a vote of confidence by a margin of 79 to 160 following a parliamentary debate lasting almost three hours.

A Dubai court jailed a Pakistani for 15 years for smuggling heroin in bags containing copies of the Koran, prayer mats and other religious paraphernalia, a report said Wednesday.

The 30-year-old man, identified only by his initials M.T., was convicted of possessing 24 kilograms (53 pounds) of heroin that was stashed in five bags with hidden compartments, the Gulf News daily said.

Islamic State group jihadists have attacked an oil and gas field in Syria, killing at least 30 pro-regime forces and security guards, a monitoring group said Wednesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack was launched on Tuesday night and fighting continued through the night.

As U.S.-led warplanes pound jihadists in Iraq, prominent Sunni exiles say that empowering their marginalized minority will be more important than bombs and missiles in defeating the Islamic State extremist group.

Deadly sectarian tensions have riven Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein more than a decade ago, with Sunni anger at the Shiite-led authorities seen as a key factor behind the rise of IS.

Abbas Yusef points wistfully towards his olive trees, which are bearing their annual fruit. Yet again, the 70-year-old Palestinian farmer will be unable to make the autumn harvest.

Yusef's olive groves lie on land either side of an Israeli settlement in the northern occupied West Bank. For years, he has been denied access by the army, and the settlers have ploughed it, uprooting many of his trees.

U.S. warplanes renewed air strikes against Islamic State jihadists near the Syrian town of Kobane, as Iraqi peshmerga soldiers prepared to reinforce their fellow Kurds in the border area, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.

U.S. fighter jets and bombers on Tuesday and Wednesday carried out eight air raids near Kobane, targeting six vehicles, a building and several IS fighting positions over the past 24 hours, said the military's Central Command, which oversees the air war in Iraq and Syria.

U.S. cargo planes have parachuted aid to a beleaguered Sunni tribe in western Iraq, the Pentagon said Tuesday, in a sign Iraqi government forces remain in a tenuous position against Islamic State jihadists in Anbar province.

American C-130 aircraft carried out an airdrop of food near Al-Asad air base early on Monday at the request of the Baghdad government, Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters.

An Islamic State propaganda video featuring a British hostage playing the role of a field reporter in a disputed Syrian town a shows the "depravity" of the jihadists, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The U.S. military is assessing the video's authenticity but has no reason to suspect it is fake, spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters.

An international conference on the Syrian refugee crisis vowed Tuesday to extend longterm financial aid to countries struggling with what the U.N. calls the world's "most dramatic humanitarian crisis," but did not commit to an overall figure.

Around 40 countries and international bodies adopted a declaration saying donors would "mobilize for years to come" increased development support to help nations like Lebanon and Jordan shoulder the impact of millions of Syrian refugees.