Israel's military said Tuesday it has conducted a joint exercise with U.S. Special Forces simulating the retaking of a hijacked ship.

The U.N. envoy for Yemen warned Tuesday that fragmentation of the war-torn Arab nation "is becoming a stronger and more pressing threat," making peace efforts that have been frustratingly slow more urgent than ever.

A large explosion hit an arms depot belonging to an Iranian-backed militia faction north of Baghdad on Tuesday, the latest in a series of mysterious blasts at military bases and munitions depots around the country in the past few weeks.

The main insurgent group in the Syrian province of Idlib pulled out of a key rebel town as government forces advanced in the area on Tuesday amid intense bombardment and airstrikes, a militant group and opposition activists said.

Museum workers in Kabul have been trying to put the pieces of ancient Buddha figurines together again as a nervous country waits for the Taliban and the U.S. to reach a deal on ending America's longest war.

Egypt says its security forces have killed 11 suspected militants in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula, where it has been fighting an insurgency for years.

Analysis

Thousands of people, mostly young male protesters, have been arrested and detained in Indian-administered Kashmir during an ongoing communications blackout and security lockdown imposed more than two weeks ago in an attempt to curtail unrest after a change to Kashmir's decades-old special status, according to high-ranking Kashmir police officials and police arrest statistics.

The president of Pakistani-administered Kashmir welcomed efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump to lower tensions between Pakistan and India over the disputed Himalayan region on Tuesday and warned of a deepening humanitarian crisis and food shortages in the Indian-held portion.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is expected to visit Japan later this month at the earliest for talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Taro Kono.

Spc. Clayton James Horne, 23, died Saturday in the Saudi capital of Riyadh from wounds that he sustained in a noncombat incident, according to the Army.

A 10-year military program aimed at creating cultural experts in Central Asia will shut down next year, ending what some Afghanistan veterans said was a once-promising effort that fell victim to shifting Pentagon priorities and leadership changes.

Bahrain has agreed to join a U.S.-led coalition for maritime security in the Persian Gulf, making it the third member of a group proposed in the wake of heightened tensions with Iran.

Units from Texas, Georgia and New York are among those deploying, according to the Army. The announcement comes as news of a potential agreement with the Taliban could mean a reduction of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

President Ashraf Ghani said he would eliminate ISIS safe havens as Afghanistan mourns at least 63 people, including children, killed in the Kabul bombing at a wedding hall Saturday. Close to 200 others were wounded.

Airstrikes targeted a Turkish army convoy inside a rebel-held part of northwestern Syria on Monday, killing three civilians and wounding 12 others, the Turkish Defense Ministry said.

The Kabul suicide bombing deepened questions about the Trump administration’s plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by striking a peace deal with one religion-based militant group — the Taliban — even as other extremists such as Islamic State continue to kill large numbers of civilians.

A suicide bombing at a wedding party in Kabul claimed by a local Islamic State affiliate has renewed fears about the growing threat posed by its thousands of fighters, as well as their ability to plot global attacks from a stronghold in the forbidding mountains of northeastern Afghanistan.

The local Islamic State affiliate claimed responsibility for the deadliest attack in Kabul this year, with 63 killed and 182 wounded, while outraged Afghans questioned just how safe they will be under an approaching deal between the United States and the Taliban.

Iran appears to be preparing another satellite launch after twice failing this year to put one in orbit.

An Iranian supertanker with $130 million worth of light crude oil that the U.S. suspects is tied to a sanctioned organization left Gibraltar and was heading east into the Mediterranean Sea on Monday, with its next destination reported to be Greece.

Afghan forces trained by U.S. and coalition advisers aren’t capable of coordinating airdrops and may not receive adequate training to prevent them from killing civilians and friendly forces during airstrikes, a Defense Department report said.

For months, Afghans have been waiting anxiously to see whether negotiations between U.S. officials and Taliban insurgents will lead to a lasting peace and a solid path to power-sharing or leave them bereft, facing revived conflict and a possible Taliban takeover. Those concerns deepened Saturday.

President Donald Trump met his top national security advisers on Friday as his team prepares to unveil an Afghanistan peace agreement with the Taliban that would help bring an end to America's longest war, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The three mayors were elected to office in the cities of Diyarbakir, Mardin and Van in local elections in March.

Authorities in Gibraltar on Sunday rejected the United States' latest request not to release a seized Iranian supertanker, clearing the way for the vessel to set sail after being detained last month.

Pakistan said Indian troops fired across the Line of Control in the disputed Kashmir region, killing two civilians and wounding another, as some security restrictions were lifted Monday in the main city of Srinagar.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said in a statement Monday that civilian casualties occurred Sunday because of "unprovoked ceasefire violations" by India in the border villages of Hot Spring and Chirikot.

ANALYSIS

The agreement as described by U.S. officials leaves several key issues unaddressed, others not yet explicitly endorsed by the Taliban, and still others to be worked out at future meetings between Taliban and Afghan leaders that have not yet been confirmed or announced.

ANALYSIS

Saturday night's devastating attack on a wedding in Afghanistan's capital comes amid huge uncertainty about the country's future.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the war, said the troops are now about 1 kilometer, or half a mile, from Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province, the last major rebel-held area in Syria.

Syrian government and Russian airstrikes pounded the southern edge of a rebel stronghold in the country's northwest on Saturday, killing at least seven members of one family, activists and a war monitor reported.

Drones claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels attacked a massive oil and gas field deep inside of Saudi Arabia's sprawling desert on Saturday, causing what the kingdom described as a "limited fire."

The captain of an Iranian supertanker at the center of a diplomatic standoff no longer wants to keep command of the ship, which is in need of repairs that could impede its immediate departure from Gibraltar, the sailor's lawyer said Friday.

After weeks of calm, Palestinian militants have attempted a number of raids in recent days. They fired rockets into Israel on two occasions over the weekend, without wounding anyone.

The U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group in Iraq says it will comply with new orders issued by the country's prime minister regarding unauthorized flights in Iraqi airspace.

Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib said Friday she would not visit her grandmother in the occupied West Bank, despite being granted an Israeli permit on humanitarian grounds, saying Israel's "oppressive" conditions aimed to humiliate her.

Israeli police shot and killed a Palestinian man Friday after he drove his car into two Israeli pedestrians in the West Bank, injuring them, and militants from the Gaza Strip fired at least one rocket toward southern Israel, the Israeli military said.

Iraq on Thursday banned unauthorized flights and ordered all military camps and munitions warehouses to be moved outside Iraqi cities following a massive explosion at a munitions depot southwest of Baghdad that killed one civilian and wounded 13 earlier this week.

Israel said Thursday that it will bar two Democratic congresswomen, Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, from entering the country ahead of a planned visit over their support for a Palestinian-led boycott movement, a decision announced shortly after President Donald Trump tweeted that it would "show great weakness" to allow them in.

Gibraltar on Thursday allowed a detained Iranian supertanker to leave the British overseas territory after a last-minute U.S. attempt to seize the vessel, potentially defusing tensions between London and Tehran as a British-flagged tanker remains held by the Islamic Republic.

Syrian government forces captured five villages in the country's northwest early Wednesday, inching closer to a major rebel-controlled town that was the scene of a deadly 2017 chemical weapons attack and forcing thousands to flee their homes to safer area further north, opposition activists and state media reported.

Schools in Afghanistan sit at the nexus of education, politics and violence. Their openings are heralded by many as signs of progress in a country stunted by conflict.

Aleppo is a symbol of how President Bashar Assad succeeded in turning the tide of the long civil war. But Aleppo is equally a symbol of how Assad has been unable to secure full victory in the war or bring total security to Syria's people.

Iraq's foreign minister says Iraq and Gulf Arab states don't need foreign powers to secure navigation in the Persian Gulf as that would only increase regional tensions.

More than four years after the Saudis and other nations sought to help restore Yemeni government control by defeating the Houthi rebels, the war in Yemen has left almost 100,000 people dead, brought near-famine to millions and made the country’s name synonymous with misery.

Army photos of the patrol Friday show troops deploying at least one drone, which resembles a miniature helicopter, during a counterterrorism mission.

Gunnery Sgt. Scott A. Koppenhafer, 35, of Mancos, Colo., died after apparently being hit by enemy small-arms fire in combat, the Pentagon said in a statement late Sunday. This incident is under investigation.

Now both the U.S. and Afghanistan will consult with their leadership on the next steps, a Taliban spokesman said Monday.

Ashraf Ghani insisted that next month's presidential election is essential so that Afghanistan's leader will have a powerful mandate to decide the country's future after years of war.

Syrian troops have been trying to secure the M5 highway, which has been closed since 2012. Idlib is a stronghold for al-Qaida-linked militants and other armed groups.

Clouds of tear gas swirled and stun grenades thundered across the stone-paved esplanade as masses of worshippers skirmished with police in the worst bout of fighting at the contested holy site in months.

A major rift in the Saudi-led coalition that’s been battling Houthi rebels was exposed during the four days of fighting for control of Aden as the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council wrested the city from government forces.

Afghanistan faces a presidential election next month but few believe the vote will take place as the United States and the Taliban inch closer to a deal that could end the nearly 18-year war but bring uncertainty about almost everything else.

A senior Russian diplomat says the moment "terrorists" adhere to a cessation of hostilities in Syria's northwestern Idlib province is when there will actually be another cease-fire.

Fighting between Yemeni government forces and southern separatists entered the third day Friday, leaving more than 20 killed, including five civilians, officials said.

Syria on Thursday accused Turkey of "expansionist ambitions," saying Ankara's agreement with Washington to set up a so-called safe zone in northeastern Syria is a serious escalation and a violation of Syria's sovereignty.

Egyptian authorities have charged Reem Mohamed Desouky, a Pennsylvania teacher and dual U.S.-Egyptian national, with administering social media accounts deemed critical of the regime. But officials have not disclosed what offending posts, if any, led to her arrest.

Israeli troops raided a Palestinian village on Thursday and the military said it was sending reinforcements to the West Bank, hours after the body of a 19-year-old soldier with stab wounds was found near a Jewish settlement.

A senior official in Yemen's embattled government on Thursday accused a southern separatist leader of "fomenting sedition" after his forces clashed with Yemeni troops near the presidential palace in Aden, as concerns rose about a new front opening up in the country's devastating civil war.

Turkey and the U.S. reached a long-sought agreement to distance American-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters from the Turkish border, softening a major point of contention between the NATO allies.

Pakistan announced Wednesday that it will downgrade diplomatic ties and suspend trade with nuclear-armed neighbor India over its sudden move to retract the semiautonomous status of the disputed Kashmir region.

Pakistan reacted with shock and anger Tuesday to India's sudden decree revoking a 65-year-old law that had granted limited political autonomy to the disputed Himalayan border region of Kashmir.

As tensions heat up in the Persian Gulf, the Navy’s minesweeping fleet may once again be called into action, but its sailors say the ships are too old and broken to do the job.

The war in Afghanistan killed and wounded more civilians in July than in any other month since May 2017, the United Nations said Saturday.

A letter-writing campaign in the Afghan capital aims to bring the voices of its residents to all the main players in the country’s ongoing war, from the U.S. to the Afghan government to the Taliban.

The drone-downing USS Boxer is ready to counter “anything that’s thrown at us” by Iran should it encounter any new threats, the ship’s executive officer said prior to departing Bahrain on Friday following a scheduled weeklong port visit.

The U.S. Congress has appropriated nearly $82.67 billion to support security in Afghanistan, or nearly two-thirds of all U.S. reconstruction funding for the country since fiscal year 2002.

Walid Fitaihi, a dual U.S.-Saudi citizen who was jailed in Saudi Arabia for nearly two years without trial, has been temporarily released from custody but is still facing criminal charges in the kingdom.

The agreement, which would require the Taliban to begin negotiating a larger peace deal directly with the Afghan government, could cut the number of American troops in the country from roughly 14,000 to between 8,000 and 9,000.

An Israeli satellite is scheduled to head to orbit on a SpaceX launch no earlier than Monday, marking the first time since a 2016 explosion that the satellite provider will entrust its payload to Elon Musk’s rocket company.

The sanctions, while largely symbolic, are likely to diminish prospects for a diplomatic solution to rising tensions that have brought the U.S. and Iran to the brink of war.