A senior military commander says Iraqi government forces have launched a new push to drive Islamic State group militants from four neighborhoods in west Mosul.

In a statement Sunday, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Rasheed Yar Allah said Iraqi special forces are moving to the al-Eraibi and al-Rifaie neighborhoods, while militarized federal police and regular army forces are fighting IS in nearby al-Ektisadieen and 17th of July neighborhoods.

Ahmad Dawoud recalls the day 10 years ago when a Lebanese soldier asked to search his taxi. Then 17, the Palestinian didn't wait for the soldier to find the weapons hidden in the trunk.

He jumped from the car and fled into the nearby Palestinian refugee camp, where the Lebanese army has no authority.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis made clear Thursday that America is committed to protecting Turkey after angering its NATO ally with a deal to arm anti-Islamic State fighters in Syria that Turkey considers terrorists.

Mattis stressed the enduring nature of the U.S.-Turkey relationship in a meeting with Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, the first face-to-face contact between officials from the two countries since the U.S. announcement about military support for the Syrian Kurds.

Life as a refugee in Jordan suddenly ended for a Syrian carpenter when he was summoned for interrogation, blindfolded and sent on a bus back to Syria with his wife and four children the next morning.

After more than four years in Jordan, the 31-year-old is back in a war zone where he fears for his family's safety and struggles to find work. He hasn't heard from parents left behind in Jordan, presumably because they fear the same fate if they make contact.

A rudimentary explosive device exploded between parked vehicles outside a post office in Rome on Friday, causing no injuries but damaging a car, police said.

A preliminary investigation indicated that the blast likely was "a demonstrative act, showing that it could be done," but apparently not designed to cause major damage, Rome police official Massimo Improta told reporters.

The Islamic State group says it has beheaded a Russian agent who had infiltrated IS ranks as a fighter to spy on the militant group.

A gruesome video released late on Monday purports to show the man, described as a captain in a Russian intelligence department that spies on "terrorists." His name was only given in Arabic.

Iran's defense minister on Monday lashed back at Saudi Arabia, slamming the kingdom's deputy crown prince over belligerent comments last week that underscored the deep rivalries between the Sunni and Shiite powers.

In a wide-ranging interview, Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman said there was no space for dialogue with rival Iran due to its Shiite ambitions "to control the Islamic world." Framing the tensions with Iran in sectarian terms, the prince said the Saudis would not sit and wait for war but would "work so that it becomes a battle for them in Iran and not in Saudi Arabia."

The new leader of Hamas made his first public appearance in the new role on Monday, visiting a solidarity tent in his native Gaza for hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

An Afghan official says at least four police officers have been shot to death in southern Helmand province.

Gen. Aqa Noor Kentoz, provincial police chief, said Saturday that all four had been killed the night before at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital.

The Russian plan to create safe zones in Syria, which came into effect Saturday, is the latest in a string of efforts to ease the country's horrendous violence. After past failures, this deal provides for the first time a mechanism to observe the cease-fire: Russian, Iranian and Turkish troops are to monitor compliance on the ground.

But there are also worrisome flaws that could doom the deal to the same fate as its predecessors.