At least eight Iraqi protesters were shot dead Thursday in clashes with security forces in the southern city of Nasiriyah amid a crackdown on anti-government unrest, medical and security sources said.

Protesters set fire Wednesday night to Iran's consulate in the southern Iraqi Shiite holy city of Najaf, two months into the country's most serious social crisis in decades.

Since October 1, protesters in Iraq -- a majority Shiite country, like its neighbor Iran -- have been calling for the fall of a central government they see as both irretrievably corrupt and beholden to Tehran.

Libya's National Oil Corporation said fighting triggered a suspension of production Wednesday at a key field in the country's southwest.

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.