American mercenaries were hired by the UAE to assassinate political leaders and clerics in Yemen in 2015, according to a new report.

A Turkish newspaper yesterday published what it said were details from audio recordings that purported to document Saudi journalist and government critic Jamal Khashoggi's torture and interrogation.

Hundreds of members of the White Helmets - a volunteer Syrian search and rescue organization - who were evacuated to Jordan are now on their way to be resettled in western countries, Jordan's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

A small group of Turkish investigators are examining the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Wednesday, a Reuters photographer said, the second such search this week of the premises after Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared two weeks ago.

Some militants have withdrawn from the demilitarisation zone in Idlib following a deal between Russia and Turkey on the northwestern Syrian region, a US official said on Wednesday.

The Syrian government gave approval for the UN to deliver aid next week to thousands of civilians stranded near a US garrison on the Jordanian-Syrian border, aid workers and camp officials said on Wednesday.

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was tortured before being decapitated inside Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul, pro-government daily Yeni Safak reported Wednesday, saying it had heard audio recordings.

Eight Palestinians, including six school children, were injured in Deir al-Balah following Israeli airstrikes on several locations in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning.

The fight to wrest a desert area in eastern Syria from the Islamic State group will take “much longer than expected”, US-backed forces battling the militants said yesterday.

AFP/Aden

The sheer magnitude of the famine facing Yemen was initially underestimated by the aid sector, leaving food security experts rushing to update projections made at the UN General Assembly a fortnight ago, sources have told the Guardian.

An influential US Senate ally of President Donald Trump pledged yesterday that Congress would take decisive action against Saudi Arabia over a missing writer, calling for the ouster of Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman..