Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited the United Arab Emirates Wednesday, as efforts to end the nearly five-year war in Yemen gain momentum.

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday denounced abuses including executions and home confiscations in a Turkish-controlled swathe of northern Syria, where Ankara says it wants to resettle Syrian refugees.

Egypt's government is using a secretive judicial agency designed to fight terrorism to detain peaceful protesters, journalists and critics on trumped-up charges without trial, Amnesty International said in a report released Wednesday.

The 60-page report by the London-based rights group details how Egypt's Supreme State Security Prosecution, or SSSP, has become increasingly central to President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's sweeping crackdown on dissent.

Two protesters were shot dead in Baghdad Wednesday and other Iraq cities were shrouded in acrid smoke from burning tires as demonstrators pressed their campaign of anti-government rallies.

Israel struck a series of military targets in the Gaza Strip overnight Wednesday in response to rockets fired from the Palestinian enclave, the Israeli army said.

Denmark's government on Tuesday offered to lead a NATO mission to train Iraqi forces, saying it was prepared to send 200 troops to Iraq at the end of next year.

A car bomb killed at least 17 people and wounded 20 others in the Turkish-controlled region of northern Syria on Tuesday, Turkey's defense ministry said.

Six people were killed in near-simultaneous explosions across various Baghdad neighborhoods late Tuesday, medics and a security source said, amid deadly anti-government protests in Iraq's capital and its restive south.

Senior US officials met with Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar Monday to discuss steps toward ending his offensive on Tripoli, and accused Russia of exploiting the conflict, the State Department said.

The delegation, which included the US ambassador to Libya Richard Norland, aimed to establish "steps to achieve a suspension of hostilities and a political resolution to the Libyan conflict," the statement read.

Russia and the West are braced for a fresh showdown at the world's chemical weapons watchdog this week over a new team that will name culprits for attacks in Syria for the first time.