The U.S. military announced on Wednesday that it has completed the withdrawal of its troops from Iraq, ending a 12-year mission to fight the Islamic State group.

The last U.S. troops left the last air base where they had been present in northern Iraq under an agreement between Baghdad and Washington.

Iranian authorities said on Wednesday they received the formal U.S. response to their proposal to end the Middle East war, state media reported, days after U.S. President Donald Trump rejected the plan.

"At today's cabinet meeting, the American side's proposal was presented to President Masoud Pezeshkian by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi," government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani told the official IRNA news agency.

The last U.S. troops were slated to leave Iraq on Wednesday under an agreement between Baghdad and Washington, a move celebrated by Iran-backed groups but which some other Iraqis found concerning, particularly in the Kurdish region.

U.S. troops invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein. They departed in 2011, but three years later, Iraqi authorities invited a smaller U.S.-led mission to fight the Islamic State group, which had rampaged across Iraq, seizing large swaths of territory.

Israel's opposition chief early Wednesday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of fear-mongering after he alleged that enemies may attack before October 27 elections.

Netanyahu, who polls show is in a close race to hold on to power, has issued warnings in recent weeks to Iran, the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah and even the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, vowing retaliation in case of an attack.

The U.N. envoy for Yemen said Tuesday he met with Houthi negotiators over the weekend in efforts to avert further escalation in Yemen amid fierce battles on the country's western coast between the Iran-backed Houthis and the Saudi-supported, but fragmented, government forces.

The renewed violence, which has killed hundreds and displaced tens of thousands, is the latest twist in Yemen's conflict, which began in 2014 when the Iran-backed rebels took over the capital, Sanaa, forcing the country's government to settle into exile in Saudi Arabia. The kingdom entered the war a year later with a multinational coalition.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said there were "indications" that Israel's enemies could try to attack ahead of elections scheduled for the end of October, without giving details.

"We have indications that ahead of the elections our enemies will try to attack us. So... I am sending you a message: Don't mess with us, not now and not ever. Our long arm will reach you anywhere, anytime," Netanyahu said at an air force base, according to a video published by his office.

The United States has granted Iraqi airlines a sanctions waiver allowing them to fly Iranian pilgrims in and out of the Iraqi city of Najaf, holy to Shia Muslims, an Iraqi government official and an airport source told AFP.

The Iraqi government had on Saturday said it was in talks with the U.S. to seek such an exemption after sanctions on Iran's aviation sector took effect.

More than 100 Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank early Tuesday, drawing rare Israeli government condemnation after they injured three members of the security forces.

The raid, along with another attack on a different West Bank village on Tuesday, comes amid mounting international criticism of settler violence, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu downplayed in an address last week to the United Nations.

Gen. Hossein Mohebbi, spokesman for the Revolutionary Guard, held a news conference dubbed “A letter to the American people” in Tehran, Iran's capital.

He said that the only way for the war to end is for Washington to admit defeat and leave — a message apparently meant for the U.S. public just weeks ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections for the U.S. Senate and Congress.

Syria early on Tuesday said an explosion caused by sabotage on an eastern gas pipeline the night before halted the flow of gas to power stations.

"A fire broke out Monday evening in a gas pipeline between the Al-Shoula area and Deir Ezzor due to the explosion of a sectional valve caused by sabotage," the official SANA news agency said.