The Israeli army said Thursday it had targeted two Hamas military posts in Gaza after a rocket was fired from the Palestinian enclave, after almost a month of calm.

Israel has approved the construction of 2,342 settler homes in the occupied West Bank, settlement watchdog Peace Now said on Thursday.

In Qamishli, the de-facto capital of Syria's embattled Kurdish minority, the future looks uncertain and shoppers at the market say they have no good options left.

The Islamic State jihadist group confirmed the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a statement Thursday and named his replacement as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi.

Iraqi President Barham Saleh vowed Thursday to hold early parliamentary elections once a new law is passed and said the country's embattled premier would resign if an alternative was found.

US forces patrolled part of Syria's border with Turkey on Thursday in the first such move since Washington withdrew troops from the area earlier this month, an AFP correspondent reported.

Iraq's leaders were in tense talks on Wednesday over the ouster of the country's embattled premier, as a rights commission said the latest week of anti-government demonstrations has left 100 dead.

As night fell, the government faced the mounting pressure of swelling protests, pro-Iran figures defending the prime minister and deadly rockets slamming into Baghdad's Green Zone.

Turkish-Russian joint patrols will start in Syria on Friday, the Turkey's president said Wednesday, a day after a deadline for the withdrawal of Syrian Kurdish fighters expired under a deal between Ankara and Moscow. 

"We will start the joint work on the ground on Friday, namely we are starting the joint patrols," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised speech to parliament.

The future of Iraq's embattled premier was in the hands of his onetime parliamentary backers Wednesday, as they deliberated over his ouster after mass anti-government protests that have left over 240 dead. 

Massive rallies broke out in Iraq's capital and south this month against corruption and unemployment, spiralling into angry calls for a total overhaul of the political system.

The armies of Syria and Turkey traded deadly fire Tuesday for the first time since Ankara launched an anti-Kurdish offensive in early October, as Russia announced Kurdish forces had withdrawn from the border area.