Syria s main opposition stuck by its demand on Thursday that President Bashar al-Assad play no role in an interim period under any U.N.-sponsored peace deal, despite speculation it could soften its stance because of Assad s battlefield strength. "The participants stressed that this (the transition) cannot happen without the departure of Bashar al Assad and his clique at the start of the interim period," opposition groups said in a communique at the end of a meeting in Saudi Arabia.

The Egyptian Second Field Army – who are assigned with the task of securing North Sinai and Ismailia from an extremist insurgency – killed four militants on Tuesday during operations against the Islamic State group. A statement released by the military’s official spokesperson said the operation resulted in the destruction of a large amount of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) which were in possession of the militants.

Leading Palestinian factions are meeting in Cairo on Tuesday to follow up on the implementation of a Palestinian reconciliation agreement brokered by Egypt on 12 October, mainly between Palestine s two major groups Fatah and Hamas. Senior Fatah official Azzam Al-Ahmed said in Cairo that the current round of meetings aims to discuss the mechanisms of implementing the deal and pushing forward the Palestinian reconciliation process, despite the “slow pace” in its implementation.

Egypt s military spokesman Tamer El-Refaie said in two official statements on Tuesday that the army has killed five terrorists during security operations in Sinai. El-Refaie said that the second field army killed four terrorists in North Sinai and destroyed a number of hideouts used to store improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

German police on Tuesday detained six Syrians suspected of planning an attack using weapons or explosives on behalf of the Islamic State militant group, prosecutors said. Police detained the suspects aged between 20 and 28 during raids in the cities of Kassel, Hanover, Essen and Leipzig, the general prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt said in a statement. Some 500 police officers took part in the raids during which eight apartments were searched.

A delegation of Coptic bishops traveled to London to participate in the enthronement ceremony of Abba Angelos, Bishop of London. The celebration was attended by the Egyptian ambassador to London, a number of British officials, Bishop Bakhomius, former acting Patriarch and Bishop Raphael, Secretary of the Holy Synod.

Egypt ranked 139th on the world peace index for 2017, jumping by 3 levels compared to 2016, according to a report by the Institute for Economics and Peace, issued on Sunday, which listed a total of 163 countries. The index measures the degree of peacefulness in accordance with three criteria: the level of security and safety in society, the level of domestic and global conflict, and the degree of military strength.

The Syrian army and its allies took complete control over Albu Kamal, Islamic State’s last significant town in Syria, a military news service run by Hezbollah said on Sunday. The army had declared victory over Islamic State in Albu Kamal earlier this month but the jihadists then staged a counter-attack using sleeper cells hidden in the town.

Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi met on Sunday a delegation of leading figures from Evangelical churches around the world as part of the Egyptian Evangelical Churchs celebration of the start of the Evangelical Reformation 500 years ago. According to the Egyptian presidency, Sisi congratulated the Evangelical church representatives on the anniversary during the meeting in Cairo, expressing the countrys appreciation for Evangelical Egyptians.

Egyptian army spokesman Tamer El-Refaie said in a statement on Thursday that law enforcement forces of the Second Field Army have targeted terrorist hideouts in North Sinai during the recent days, killing 3 high-risk terrorists and arresting 74 others suspected of supporting terrorist elements. The statement said that the raids came as part of wider Armed Forces efforts to pursue terrorists and criminal elements.

The Islamic State (IS) militant group has lost 95 percent of the cross-border "caliphate" it declared three years ago in Iraq and Syria, the US-led coalition fighting it has said. "Since our coalition was formed in 2014, ISIS has lost 95 percent of the territory it once controlled in Iraq and Syria," Washington s envoy to the coalition, Brett McGurk, said late Wednesday after a meeting in Jordan, using an alternative acronym for IS.

Egypt s top appeals court upheld on Wednesday a life sentence against Muslim Brotherhood chief Mohamed Badie and 35 others convicted of involvement in violence that broke out in the aftermath of the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. The Court of Cassation also upheld various jail terms against 20 others. Out of the total 105 defendants in the original case, 49 were sentenced in absentia and 20 were found not guilty.

The United States military has carried out an air strike in Somalia against al Shabaab, an al Qaeda-linked Islamist insurgency that wants to topple the U.N.-backed government, the U.S. Africa Command said on Wednesday. It said "several militants" were killed in the strike 60 miles northwest of the capital, Mogadishu, on Tuesday at about 1500 GMT. It was coordinated with the Somali government, AfriCom said in a statement.

A high military court in Ismailia has rejected appeals by fifteen terrorists convicted of killing soldiers in North Sinai, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported on Monday, confirming the death penalties issued to them. The defendants were found guilty of killing two army officers and seven soldiers and attempting to bomb a security patrol in Arish city in 2013.

Egypt s Court of Cassation overturned on Tuesday death sentences and ordered a retrial for five defendants accused of forming a terrorist cell affiliated with the banned Muslim Brotherhood organisation in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura. A Mansoura criminal court had convicted the defendants in March 2015.

IS militants regained control of Albu Kamal, their last stronghold inSyria, after Iranian-backed militias who claimed to have captured the city a few days earlier were ambushed and forced to retreat, tribal leaders, residents and a war monitor said on Monday. Fighters from Lebanese Shia Hezbollah in Syria who joined forces with Iraqi Shia fighters crossing the border into Syria were taken by surprise by militants hiding inside tunnels in the heart of the city they said they had taken on Wednesday, they said.

The Paris and Brussels attacks, a botched shooting on a high-speed train and a foiled plot in Belgium may have all been part of one big Islamic State group operation, Belgium s federal prosecutor said Monday. Speaking on the second anniversary of the November 13 Paris attacks, chief prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw confirmed for the first time what investigators have been saying privately about the possible links.

Fellow of the UN High Commissioner for Minority Affairs, Joseph Malak, sent an official warning on Sunday to Prime Minister Sherif Ismail as well as ministries of interior, local development, parliamentarian affairs and governor of Alexandria, calling on them to cancel the decisions that ordered the closure of churches in Egypt. Malak, who is also a lawyer, resorted to Egypt’s 2013 Constitution and Law 80 of 2016 pertaining to building churches as well as ministerial decree no 199 of 2017 on the formation of a commission for regulating the statues of existing churches, which says that all existing churches in Egypt are licensed.

A little-known militant group called Jund al-Islām, inspired by Al-Qaeda ideology, declared on Saturday that it carried out a military attack against the Islamic State’s Egyptian branch Sinai Province, describing the group as ‘Kharijites,’ or apostates. Through a voice statement, Jund al-Islām explained that the Sinai Province is violating Islamic Sharia law because it targets civilians and brands them as apostates.

Syria s army declared victory over Islamic State (IS) militants on Thursday, saying its capture of the jihadists last town in the country marked the collapse of their project in the region. The army and its allies are still fighting IS in desert areas near Albu Kamal, the last town the militant group had held in Syria, near the border with Iraq, the army said.

With the Islamic State group crumbling in Iraq and Syria, Afghanistan mired in crisis and Russia looming large, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has plenty of pressing issues to tackle with NATO allies this week. The Pentagon chief arrives at the alliance s Brussels headquarters Wednesday for two days of talks with fellow NATO defence ministers and a separate meeting with partners from the coalition fighting IS group in the Middle East, where the jihadists continue to lose territory.