Pro-Syrian government forces entered Syria s northwestern Afrin region on Tuesday to help a Kurdish militia there fend off a Turkish assault, raising the prospect of a wider escalation of the conflict. Soon after the convoy of militia fighters - waving Syrian flags and brandishing weapons - entered Afrin, Syrian state media reported that Turkey had targeted them with shellfire.

Head of the Misr al-Qawya Party (Egypt Strong Party) and former-Islamist presidential candidate Abdel Moneam Abu al-Fotouh refused to answer questions during interrogations by the Supreme State Security Prosecution on Sunday regarding his relationship with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group following accusations that he had been one of its leaders when he was a university student. Abu al-Fotouh admitted that he had met a number of MB leaders abroad after it was revealed that Egypt’s security services had monitored the meetings.

Four “takfiris” were killed by the Egyptian Armed Forces in northern and central Sinai, the army said in a statement on Monday, as comprehensive Operation Sinai 2018 enters its second week. The term “takfiri” refers to Sunni Muslims who accuse other Muslims of being infidels, often as a justification for using violence against them.

Egypt s Ministry of Interior said in a statement on Thursday that the head of the Strong Egypt Party Abdel-Moneim Abul Fotouh plotted with members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood to destabilise the country ahead of the upcoming presidential elections.

Egypt s Armed Forces launched on Monday a number of hotlines for citizens to “report terrorists and places where they are suspected to be,” according to a statement by the military.

Police investigating an incident in Britain s parliament on Tuesday were dealing with a suspect package, news website MailOnline said, citing witnesses. Earlier, a spokesperson for the lower house of the legislature said police were investigating an incident but provided no further details.

The Egyptian Armed Forces announced that the ongoing operations in Sinai has killed 10 militants, raising the number of extremists killed since Friday—when the extensive Sinai 2018 operation began—to 38. Military spokesperson Tamer El-Refaei said in a statement that around 400 suspects were arrested, adding that they include foreigners. He added that the navy has fired four missiles.

Egypt s Criminal Court has handed a final death sentence to a man convicted of the October 2017 killing of a Coptic priest in a northeastern suburb of Cairo. The court s verdict comes two months after it convicted 19-year-old Ahmed El-Sonbaty and issued a preliminary death sentence.

Another 143 Turkish soldiers were wounded in the operation dubbed "Olive Branch" which began on January 20 against the Syrian Kurdish People s Protection Units (YPG) militia in the western region of Afrin, a statement said. While the United States has given armed support to the YPG against the Islamic State group in Syria, Turkey says the militia is a "terrorist" offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Egypt s presidential spokesman Bassam Rady affirmed in press statements on Sunday that the current "Sinai 2018" comprehensive military operation is a more sophistocated and extensive successor to a previous series of operations dubbed "Martyrs Right," the first phase of which was launched in 2015 as part of Egypt s wider war on terror. The current military operation involves all branches of Egyptian armed land, naval and air forces, as well as the police and border guards.

The UN s top human rights official on Saturday said 230 civilians were killed in the past week by a government offensive backed by Russian airstrikes, warning the attacks may constitute war crimes. “The past week has been one of the bloodiest periods of the entire conflict, with wave after wave of deadly airstrikes leading to civilian casualties in areas of Eastern Ghouta and Idlib,” said Zeid Ra ad al-Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights.

The US State Department has recently placed Hasm (Decisiveness) and Lewaa Al-Thawra (Revolution Brigade) on its list of terrorist organisations. The two groups, which Egypt has has said are affiliated to the banned Muslim Brotherhood, were branded as terrorists on the UK s list in December 2016.

Syria s state media say the U.S.-led coalition has bombed government-backed troops in eastern Syria, citing reports of dozens killed and wounded. The official state news agency SANA reported on Thursday that the overnight attack hit tribal fighters in Khusham, a town in the oil-rich Deir el-Zour province.

US authorities said Tuesday they had arrested a longtime Saudi resident of Oklahoma who had trained with Al-Qaeda and sought flying lessons. The Department of Justice said Naif Abdulaziz Alfallaj, 34, applied in 2000 to attend the same Al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, called al-Farouq, where several of the September 11 hijackers had trained.

Renewed government strikes killed 32 civilians on Wednesday in a rebel-held enclave near Damascus, where overwhelmed medics were still treating survivors of the Syrian conflict s bloodiest day in months. The district of Eastern Ghouta, controlled by rebel factions including Islamists, suffered some of its worst bloodshed in years on Tuesday, when 80 civilians were killed.

Yemeni Nobel Prize winner Tawakkol Karman was suspended from an Islamist party allied with President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after she accused the Saudi-led coalition that backs him in the country s civil war of acting as occupiers. Karman won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her role in Arab Spring protests that ousted authoritarian President Ali Abdullah. More recently she has ramped up public criticism of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, accusing them of backing a campaign to divide Yemen by supporting southern separatists against the internationally recognised government.

Egypt s high military appeals court upheld on Tuesday death sentences handed to two defendants over the August 2013 murder of two police personnel in North Sinai. A first-degree military court originally sentenced the pair to death in 2015 for their involvement in the militant attack on Al-Gora checkpoint in the North Sinai city of Al-Arish, and for possessing illegal firearms.

Egyptian army spokesman Tamer El-Refa i on Sunday dismissed a New York Times report alleging Egyptian approval of Israeli airstrikes against terrorist targets in North Sinai over the past two years. "The Egyptian Army and police are fighting terrorism in North Sinai on their own and without anybody s help," the spokesman said in the statement.

The Second Field Army’s law enforcement forces in North Sinai, in cooperation with the Air Force, killed a high-ranking militant and arrested six suspected terrorists Armed Forces’ spokesperson Tamer al-Refaei said on Monday. Authorities discovered and destroyed two four-wheeled vehicles, six motorbikes as well as a storehouse containing motorbike spare parts and 51 explosive devices, he said in a statement.

Egypt s armed forces thwarted over the past week 20 different attempts to smuggle goods and drugs, as well as irregular migration attempts, across Egyptian borders, the army spokesman said in a statement on Saturday. The Armed Forces have apprehended 20 suspects in several cases as well as 226 persons who attempted to migrate irregularly.

Syrian militants of Hay at Tahrir al-Sham shot down a Russian fighter jet in Idlib city in northwestern Syria on Saturday, according to the Russian Defence Ministry. The pilot of the aircraft, a Sukhoi Su-25, was killed when the militants tried to capture him. According to the statement by the Russian Ministry of Defence, “the pilot managed to report the ejection in the area controlled by the militants of Jabhat al-Nusra, but later he died fighting the terrorists.”