Air strikes on Syria's northwestern Idlib region stopped on Saturday after a Russian-backed ceasefire went into effect following four months of deadly bombardment, a war monitor said. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday to avoid any rapprochement with Iran, amid European efforts to rescue the embattled 2015 nuclear deal, his office said.

The United Arab Emirates has confirmed it launched air strikes on Yemen's interim capital Aden, after furious accusations from the internationally recognized government which has lost control of the city to UAE-backed separatists.

In the face of charges it targeted Yemeni government troops, Abu Dhabi said it acted in self-defense against "terrorist militias" threatening the Saudi-led military coalition against Huthi rebels in which the UAE is a key partner.

The Islamic State group on Friday claimed an attack that killed three separatists in the southern Yemeni city of Aden.

Iraq's government is preparing a complaint to the U.N. after finding Israel is "certainly" behind several attacks on Hashed al-Shaabi bases, a parliamentarian and leading member of the paramilitary force said.

The United Nations said Friday it will help evacuate civilians from an "abysmal" Syrian desert camp near the border with Jordan, after a mission last week determined who wanted to leave.

Turkey on Friday said Ankara wanted to witness itself the withdrawal of Kurdish fighters from parts of northern Syria after such claims by Syrian Kurdish authorities this week.

Bombings, gun violence and mysterious assassinations: In Syria's southern province of Daraa, an experiment to use surrendering rebels as regime proxies has seen the area descend into lawlessness.

Separatists in South Yemen on Thursday regained full control of Aden following clashes with government forces, who had controlled key sites in the interim capital for just a few hours.