Clashes raged between Turkish-backed forces and Kurdish militia in Syria s Afrin region on Wednesday, as wounded civilians fled intense Turkish air strikes. Turkey and allied Syrian rebels have pressed on with Operation Olive Branch in the Kurdish-controlled Afrin enclave despite mounting international concern and reports of rising civilian casualties. An AFP correspondent in Afrin heard warplanes flying overhead, and Kurdish officials said rocket fire on the town wounded 12 civilians.

Rockets fired from northern Syria into a Turkish border town killed a teenage girl and wounded another person on Wednesday, Turkey s state-run news agency reported amid Ankara s intensifying offensive on a Syrian Kurdish-controlled enclave. It was the latest in a string of rocket attacks on the border towns of Reyhanli and Kilis since Jan. 20, when Turkey s military launched a cross-border operation to drive out the Syrian Kurdish militia from the northern enclave of Afrin. Ankara considers the Syrian Kurdish People s Protection Units, or YPG, an extension of the outlawed Kurdish rebels fighting an insurgency inside Turkey.

A Cairo criminal court sentenced on Tuesday six people to life in prison – 25 years – for joining an illegal organisation, the attempted murder of security personnel and establishing a terrorist cell in the case known in the media as the "second Nasr City terrorist cell."

The highly-ranking Egyptian Muslim institution Dar al-Ifta Al-Misriyyah issued a Fatwa [ruling on an Islamic law] on Monday that any citizen who refrains from voting during any election is considered a “sinner” who is acting “dishonestly.” Dar al-Ifta is assigned to draw upon the Quranic scripture and prophets’ teachings, and has consulted jurists throughout history to help Muslims live their lives according to the principles of Islam.

Gunmen attacked an army outpost near one of Afghanistan s main military academies on Monday and five soldiers were killed and 10 wounded before the attackers were subdued, the defence ministry said. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack near the Marshal Fahim military academy in the western outskirts of the capital, Kabul, according to the militant group s Amaq news agency.

Yemen s state-run news agency says 12 people have been killed and over 130 wounded in clashes between separatists and pro-government forces in the southern port city of Aden, where the government is based. The clashes in Aden erupted on Sunday, after a deadline issued by the separatists for the government to resign expired.

Egypt’s Al-Nour Party, the country’s largest Salafi party, declared on Sunday that they are officially supporting President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi’s second presidential bid and that its members will vote for the incumbent in the upcoming polls. During a press conference held at the party’s main headquarters in Cairo, the head of Al-Nour Younis Makhyoun said that after consultations with the heads of the party’s different branches around Egypt, they decided to support Sisi in the upcoming presidential elections.

France would intervene if a French jihadist were condemned to death in Iraq or Syria, the country s justice minister Nicole Belloubet said on Sunday. The possibility of such an event has arisen after an Iraqi court this month sentenced to death a German woman of Moroccan origin for membership of Islamic State.

The Egyptian cabinet has ratified a law establishing the Supreme Council for Combating Terrorism and Extremism (SCCTE), modifying Presidential Decree 355/2017 which created the National Council for Combating Terrorism and Extremism. The cabinet said the SCCTE will act to motivate state institutions and society to eradicate terrorism and trace its funding.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told U.S. President Donald Trump in a phone call on Wednesday that U.S. troops should withdraw from northern Syria s Manbij region, Turkey s foreign minister said on Thursday. On Wednesday, prior to his phone call with Trump, Erdogan said Turkey would extend its military operation in Syria to the town of Manbij, a move that could potentially bring Turkish forces into confrontation with those of their NATO ally the United States.

Pope Tawadros II, the head of Egypt s Coptic Orthodox Church, met with senior writers and journalists at Al-Ahram headquarters in downtown Cairo on Tuesday to inaugurate an exhibition displaying some of the paper s oldest editions and historic belongings. During the visit, the pope met with Al-Ahram Chairman Abdel-Mohsen Salama, Editor-in-Chief Alaa Thabet as well as a number of the organization s senior writers and officials.

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed concerns to Turkey s Tayyip Erdogan in a phone call on Tuesday following the Turkish military intervention in the Syrian enclave of Afrin. "Taking into account Turkey s security imperatives, the president expressed to his Turkish counterpart his concerns following the military intervention launched on Saturday in Afrin," Macron s office said in a statement.

Egypt s interior ministry said Tuesday that six terrorists were killed in a shootout with police during a raid on a militant hideout in North Sinai. Security forces tracked a group of terrorists who plotted to increase attacks against security forces as the country celebrates national police day on Thursday, the ministry said in a statement.

Egyptian prison authorities affiliated with the Ministry of Interior executed a defendant named Mohamed Ahmed Abu Srei, convicted of carrying out a deadly attack and killing an army outpost officer in Ismailia in 2013. Security and legal sources told Daily News Egypt that the execution took place in a Cairo prison, after the Military Court in Ismailia approved the death sentence, adding that the defendant was a member of the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.

Egyptian TV channels have accused Lieutenant General Sami Hafez Anan, a candidate in the 2018 Egyptian presidential elections, of forming an “alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood”.

A worker with an analysis tests laboratory opened fire on a car belonging to the patron of a church in Abu Qarqas, south of Minya, targeting the driver because of a previous relationship between the son of the driver and the assailant s nephew.

The unnamed woman, who has been sentenced to death by hanging, fled Germany with her two children who then married members of the brainwashed death cult.

In the highest-level American official visit to Egypt Since 2009, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi received on Saturday US Vice President Mike Pence at the presidential palace in Cairo. The American official has started a Middle East tour that also includes Jordan and Israel with the aim to boost peace process in the region.

Egyptian police forces killed Sunday a dangerous arms smuggler during a shootout at a checkpoint in Upper Egypt s Qena governorate, an interior ministry statement said.

An Egyptian court sentenced on Sunday five members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group to life imprisonment terms over charges of violence.

Addressing the "World Conference in Support of Jerusalem", Al-Azhar Deputy Imam Abbas Shoman stressed al Azhar s firm rejection against visiting Jerusalem under Israeli occupation, noting that visiting it under the current conditions would only lead to grave consequences.