Air strikes pounded a jihadist-held area near Damascus on Sunday, footage broadcast by Syrian state TV stations showed, as the Syrian government stepped up efforts to wipe out the insurgency s last foothold near the capital. Thick clouds of smoke rose from the al-Hajar al-Aswad area and the sound of jets could be heard in broadcasts from the area just south of Damascus that is controlled by insurgents from the Islamic State and Nusra Front groups.

Military forces from Egypt’s Third Field Army killed the ‘Emir’ (leader) of Sinai Province, the Islamic State-affiliated (IS) group based in North Sinai, during a sweeping operation conducted in central Sinai on Wednesday morning. According to a statement released by the Egyptian army’s official spokesperson Tamer al-Refaei, Third Field Army forces carried out a sweeping operation in a number of rugged mountainous areas in central Sinai where they faced Sinai Province leader Naser Abu Zakoul in an exchange of fire and killed him.

Iraqi courts have sentenced to death a total of more than 300 people, including dozens of foreigners, for belonging to the Islamic State group, judicial sources said Wednesday. The suspects are being tried by two courts, one near the former jihadist stronghold of Mosul in northern Iraq and another in Baghdad which is dealing notably with foreigners and women.

The state committee that considers the legalization of unlicensed churches made up of Egypt’s cabinet approved on Monday the legalization of 102 churches and 64 church-affiliated service buildings in various governorates. The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, Local Development Minister Abu Bakr al-Gendy and representatives of other ministries and concerned authorities.

International inspectors were to try on Monday to visit the site of a suspected gas attack which brought U.S.-led missile strikes on Syria and heightened the diplomatic confrontation between the West and President Bashar al-Assad s main ally Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday more Western attacks on Syria would bring chaos to world affairs, and Washington prepared to increase pressure on Russia with new economic sanctions.

Egypt s Court of Cassation upheld on Sunday death sentences against four defendants convicted of terror-related charges, including two in absentia, in the 2015 "Ousim terrorist cell case.” The court also upheld jail sentences ranging between 15 years to life for 29 defendants in the same case, including 13 in absentia.

Egypt’s Grand Mufti has issued a ‘fatwa’ (religious ruling) against buying ‘likes’ on social media platforms, a mechanism commonly used by people running social media channels who opt to buy their followers in order to boost their numbers, Al-Masry Al-Youm reports. “Boosting content is permissible in Sharia law as long as it’s in a manner to promote an account, a product, a page or a publication in order for the content to reach a certain number of user targeted in exchange of money,” Shawki Allam, Egypt’s Grand Mufti, said.

Pro-government forces in Syria are emptying main airports and military air bases over possible US strikes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said on Wednesday. US President Donald Trump said in a Tweet on Wednesday that American missiles "will be coming" to Syria following a suspected chemical weapons attack on Sunday.

An Alexandria military court issued on Tuesday preliminary death sentences against 36 people convicted of involvement in deadly bombings on two Egyptian churches in Alexandria and Tanta in April 2017. The case involves 48 defendants, 31 of whom are in custody and 17 are fugitives. The court has referred the case to the country s Grand Mufti for his non-binding opinion on the death sentence as per Egyptian law. The verdict is subject to appeal.

An official security source in the Ministry of the Interior denied reports that an extremist had attempted to attack a church in the city of Obour, stressing that the arrested suspect was beggar mot linked any extremist groups. The security services assigned to provide security for the Church of Mar Boullus in Obour, Qaliubiya, reported that ‘Mohamed S. G.’, 21, from Sharqiya governorate tried to enter the church with a black plastic bag containing some clothes.

Four months after Iraqi government troops drove the last remnants of the Islamic State (IS) terror group from the country, the militants are waging a growing campaign of ambushes and hit and run attacks that has rendered that victory nearly futile. Over the past few weeks insurgents have been attacking the Iraqi security forces in areas which the government had taken back from IS, nearly every day, showing a high level of organisation and probably having inside information on the deployment plans of the soldiers.

Upper Egypt s criminal court of Sohag on Wednesday sentenced 35 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group to life in prison on charges of weapons possession in Sohag. In the same case, the court also convicted 155 others, handing down various sentences ranging between three and 15 years in prison. The sentences can still be appealed.

Over the past three days of Egypt’s presidential elections, many Christians turned out in support for President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, with many in the community endorsing him for a second term in office. While some Egyptians find his win inevitable against his little known rival Moussa Mostafa Moussa, a lot of Christians believe he is the best man to rule Egypt at the moment.

Hundreds of pilgrims filed into Jerusalem s Church of the Holy Sepulchre -- believed to be the site of Jesus s resurrection -- for Easter celebrations on Sunday. Western Christians marked Easter on Sunday, while eastern Orthodox Christians do so on April 8. The eastern Orthodox marked Palm Sunday on April 1 and also held mass at the church in Jerusalem s Old City, with worshippers holding palm fronds as is tradition.

Coptic Egyptians headed on Sunday to churches across Egypt to celebrate Palm Sunday, the seventh Sunday of the Great Lent before Resurrection Sunday. They accompanied their families and friends carrying palm fronds, a symbol of victory and goodness, while children held crosses and other accessories made of fronds. This came as other Christians around the world celebrated Easter. Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II led on Sunday the Palm Sunday mass at the Church of the Virgin Mary and Santa Marina in Egypt s North Coast, with a large attendance of priests and Christians, state-run Middle East News Agency reported. “Pray that God s mercy overwhelms all people,” Pope Tawadros II told worshipers.

Turkish prosecutors ordered the detention of 70 serving army officers over alleged links to the U.S.-based preacher accused of orchestrating an attempted coup in 2016, CNN Turk said on Thursday. Police launched simultaneous operations in 38 provinces across Turkey in a probe led by state prosecutors in the central Turkish province of Konya, the broadcaster said.

Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II attempted on Monday to reassure Egyptians after the recent attacks on Copts in North Sinai, stressing that the Coptic families that have fled the governorate out of fear of terrorist violence will return to the city "when the time is right." At the start of this month, the Coptic Orthodox Church announced that 143 Christian families had fled North Sinai to Ismailiya after a spate of killings of Christians by Islamist militants in the governorate.

Islamic State's branch in the Sinai Peninsula posted a video on Tuesday depicting the beheading of two men the militant Islamist group said it had found guilty of practicing witchcraft and sorcery. The video, posted on a Telegram channel often used by IS, showed the group forming a religious police unit known as the Hasbah in northern Sinai, where it has waged an insurgency for years. The rugged, thinly populated peninsula borders Israel, Gaza and the Suez Canal.

Islamic State-affiliate Province of Sinai released a promotional video on Tuesday showing members of the organization carrying out what it alleges to be Hisba, or religious policing. The group claimed the footage is from locations in North Sinai, which it did not identify. Hisba is defined by religious scholars as the practice of commanding virtue and forbidding vice, professor of Islamic law professor at Al-Azhar University Ahmed Kareema told the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper. He added that Hisba should be conducted by a select few who must be efficient, fair, knowledgeable and capable, describing it as a type of guardianship falling to those who have been entrusted with religious matters.

The Syrian army is preparing to launch a "huge" operation against the last rebel-held town in eastern Ghouta unless the Jaish al-Islam insurgent group agrees to hand over the area, a pro-Syrian government newspaper reported on Wednesday. Routed by the Russian-backed Syrian army, rebels in other parts of eastern Ghouta are leaving in convoys to insurgent-held areas in the northwest under withdrawal deals that are restoring President Bashar al-Assad s control.

Communities drawn into conflict after Libya s 2011 uprising have no choice but to reconcile if the country is to recover, said the mayor of a town that was left isolated following fighting four years ago. Mustafa al-Baroni, mayor of the western town of Zintan, also warned that politicians from rival bodies which have overrun their terms are scheming to cling to power, blocking progress at a local level. Zintan emerged as an important military power-base in the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi seven years ago. However, in 2014 its forces lost their footing in the capital Tripoli to rivals from western Libyan towns including Misrata as the conflict escalated.