Six of the most powerful rebel factions in Syria issued a joint statement on Thursday telling an al-Qaida front group to withdraw from the northern town of Azaz bordering Turkey.

In a separate statement, rebels in central Syria also called on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to leave Homs province.

The United States expressed concern Wednesday over Morocco's decision to charge a journalist with aiding "terrorism" after he posted a link to an al-Qaida video.

Ali Anouzla, director of the Arabic version of independent news website Lakome, was arrested on September 17 after his website posted a link to the video attributed to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the extremist network's North African affiliate.

Yemeni troops have retaken a military headquarters in a deadly assault on al-Qaida-linked militants who seized it this week and took a number of hostages, the defense ministry said Thursday.

The Wednesday operation, in which all the militants were "annihilated" and a still-unclear number of hostages killed, comes a week after a spectacular series of ambushes on army posts in which more than 50 soldiers and police were killed.

Dozens of angry protesters tried to storm Russia's embassy in Tripoli on Wednesday after reports that a Russian woman had killed a Libyan army officer, witnesses said.

The demonstrators destroyed a car parked in front of the embassy compound and damaged the mission's entrance gate, the witnesses told Agence France Presse.

Azerbaijan on Wednesday accused Armenia of resettling Syrian refugees in a disputed territory the two have been fighting over for decades.

Azerbaijan's U.N. ambassador said the rival neighbor had started a "very dangerous process with unpredictable consequences" by moving Syrian Armenians into Nagorny Karabakh.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that Israel was "upset and angry" with signs of an emerging new relationship between the Islamic republic and the West.

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a UN summit his country was ready to act alone to halt Iran's alleged efforts to build a nuclear bomb.

Police in Somalia said Wednesday they were questioning a man accused of beheading four of his children more than three years after divorcing their mother.

Omar Shire Hassan was apprehended late Tuesday by the police in the central Somalia town of Beledweyne, situated about 300 kilometers (190 miles) north of the capital, a few hours after allegedly murdering the children who were between three and eight years old.

Kuwaiti security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades Wednesday to disperse hundreds of stateless residents demanding citizenship and basic rights, activists and witnesses said.

Known locally as bidoons, the demonstrators turned out to mark the international day of non-violence despite a stern warning by the interior ministry that it would deal firmly and harshly with any protest.

Saudi authorities detained prominent rights activist Waleed Abulkhair on Wednesday for setting up an "unauthorized" gathering hall where he held meetings with reformists in the absolute monarchy, his wife said.

Abulkhair, was taken into custody for setting up "an unauthorized diwaniah," or gathering place, and "due to his relations with the reformists and for hosting them in our diwaniah," Samar Badawi told Agence France Presse.

The Gaza Strip's Islamist rulers Hamas on Wednesday hanged a prisoner who had been convicted of murder, its interior ministry said.

"At 4:30 pm (1430 GMT) on October 2, the death penalty was carried out against Hani Mohammed Abu Aliyan from Khan Yunis for his crime of killing Hazem Hassan Barham," the ministry said in a statement.