Jordan on Monday reopened its main border crossing with war-torn Syria, a key Middle East trade route, after a three year closure, AFP reporters said.

A deadline for jihadists to leave a planned buffer zone around Syria's last major rebel bastion of Idlib passed Monday without any sign they had done so, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Britain, France and Germany insisted Sunday that "light must be shed" on the whereabouts of journalist Jamal Khashoggi as they called for a credible investigation into his disappearance.

At least 15 civilians were killed in attacks on minibuses in Yemen's embattled Hodeida province, a U.N. agency said Sunday, as Huthi rebels blamed air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition.

Saudi Arabia warned it would retaliate against any sanctions imposed on the oil-rich kingdom over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as more Western companies distanced themselves from the Gulf State.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday threatened to inflict "very strong blows" on Hamas after fresh violence along the border with the Gaza Strip controlled by the Islamist group.

Opposition fighters have fired mortar shells from a planned buffer zone in northwest Syria, in a deadly attack that threatens a deal to protect the last major rebel bastion from a regime offensive.

Turkey has accused Saudi Arabia of failing to cooperate with a probe into the disappearance of a journalist inside its Istanbul consulate, as U.S. President Donald Trump threatened "severe punishment" if it turns out he was killed.

Hardline fighters have yet to begin withdrawing from a planned buffer zone in northwestern Syria, a monitor and an AFP correspondent said Sunday on the eve of the pullout's deadline.

US President Donald Trump has said Saudi Arabia could be behind the disappearance of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi and warned Washington would inflict "severe punishment" if that is the case.