Egyptian security forces firing tear gas have quashed small, scattered demonstrations by Islamist supporters of ousted President Mohammad Mursi who tried to commemorate the anniversary of the killing of hundreds of protesters.

Major General Amin Ezz Eddin, Alexandria security chief, said security forces dispersed three marches by the Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday. Five protesters were arrested.

At least four persons were killed in clashes between alleged Muslim Brotherhood supporters and police forces on Thursday, the first anniversary of the bloody clearing of a sit-in supporting ousted president Mohamed Morsi last August, said Al-Ahram's Arabic news website.

The recent wave of violence against innocent families and children in Iraq has rendered the world shocked and horrified. We will not remain indifferent or silent before such irrational persecution, cultural intolerance and appalling loss of life, especially when it is caused by religious hatred and racial hostility.

An Islamist protester and a policeman were shot dead in Cairo on Thursday, security sources said, one year after government forces killed hundreds of demonstrators in the worst bloodshed in Egypt's recent history.

Jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group have taken control of a string of villages in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo, a monitoring group said on Wednesday.

The pro-Morsi Anti-Coup Alliance condemned Sunday the ban on the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), describing it as an unlawful and void decision.

Pope Francis has called on the international community and the United Nations in particular to do all they can to stop the "systematic violence" against ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq.

A small group of Gazan Christians are facing hardship as the conflict between Israel and Gaza has continued for one month.

Human Rights Watch has described last year's killings during the dispersal of two Cairo protest camps held by supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi as planned in advance and likely "a crime against humanity".

Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that the dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in on 14 August 2013 “probably” amounted to crimes against humanity, in a report based on a one-year investigation.

The Salafist Nour Party will hold Tuesday a number of extensive meetings to complete the party’s preparation for the coming parliamentary election, and members say it plans to issue its candidate list by the end of August.

Iraqi Christians who fled a jihadist onslaught and are packed several families to a room in a church in Kurdistan have lost hope in their country and long to emigrate.

The Muslim Brotherhood-led National Alliance to Support Legitimacy (NASL) has called on its loyalists to flock to squares on Thursday, the first anniversary of the violent dispersal of their protest camps.

Egypt has extended its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood to include burning books it says promote violence and ideas linked to the banned Islamist group, a local official and a security source said on Saturday.

Egypt's prosecutor-general Hisham Barakat referred on Sunday 31 suspects to the criminal court over the killing of four Shiites last year.

The Palestinian cease-fire delegation in Cairo has agreed to the Egyptian proposal of a 72-hour truce and will remain in Egypt until a permanent peace agreement is reached, Sky News Arabia reported Sunday quoting sources inside the delegation.

A pro-Muslim Brotherhood protester died on Friday in Al-Matariya district in clashes with locals, an interior ministry statement read.

An Egyptian court asked the top religious authority on Thursday to reconsider his decision to reject its death sentence against the leader of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and 13 supporters on charges of murder and possession of firearms.

Militants from the hardline Islamic State group have seized one of the last remaining government bases in the northern province of Raqqa, activists said on Thursday, in clashes a monitoring group said killed more than 40 people.

The Muslim Brotherhood's Supreme Guide, Mohamed Badie, and 14 other leading members of the group may not be sentenced to death on charges of inciting murder and violence in the Istaqama Mosque clashes trial.