Islamic State militants in Mosul are deliberately targeting civilians who refuse to join them as they retreat ahead of advancing Iraqi forces involved in a large-scale government operation to retake the militant-held city, an international watchdog said on Wednesday.

A terrorist belonging to the "Islamic State" (IS) group carried out a truck attack that killed 12 people at a Berlin Christmas market, a news agency linked to the jihadists said Tuesday.

10-year-old Maggy Mo'men who was injured in the Botroseya church bombing died of her injuries at Al-Galaa Military Hospital on Tuesday, bringing the death toll of the blast to 26.

Islamic State militants claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a shootout at a Crusader castle in the southern Jordanian city of Karak, in which at least nine people including a Canadian tourist were killed and scores injured.

Egypt Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar on Sunday suspended from work a police officer currently detained for alledgedly torturing a suspect to death.

Egypt’s Prime Minister Sherif Ismail decided on Saturday to compensate the families of the victims killed in the St. Paul and St. Peter Church bombing. The families of the deceased will receive EGP 100,000 in compensation, along with a monthly pension of EGP 1,500 per victim, local media reported.

The ministry said investigations revealed the group was led by a suspect who received financial and logistical support and instructions to carry out the attacks by Brotherhood leaders residing in Qatar.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry denounced the statements by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued in the wake of the cathedral blast, which occurred on Sunday in Cairo.

Egypt’s Coptic Catholic Church has cancelled Christmas celebrations on 25 December at its churches in a show of solidarity with the Coptic Orthodox Church over Sunday’s church bombing, though Christmas mass will still be held on Christmas eve at Catholic churches, Church spokesperson Father Rafic Greiche told news outlets on Thursday.

MPs called during a meeting of the Egyptian Parliament's Human Rights Committee on Tuesday, for the cancellation of religion classes at school, saying it creates generations of extremists. MP Essam Farouk said the cancellation of religion classes at schools has become a necessity. According to Farouk the fact that, during religion classes Christian minority students are required to leave their classes to receive Christian religion lessons in other rooms, communicates a negative message about them to their Muslim colleagues.

Egypt’s interior ministry said on Monday that people in connection with Muslim Brotherhood group were behind the bombing of St. Peter and St. Paul Church in Cairo. The blast, which coincided with the Muslim celebration of the Prophet’s Birthday, killed 25 and injured dozens of worshippers at the church attached to one of Egypt’s most symbolic sites for Copts, St. Mark’s Coptic Cathedral.

Egypt's Minister of Defence Sobhi Sedky visited Sunday’s Cairo church bombing injured survivors, who are receiving treatment at El-Galaa military hospital in the capital, the Egyptian Armed Forces spokesperson announced on his Facebook page.

The IS group has claimed responsibilty for the bombing at the St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, last Sunday.

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi identified on Monday 22-year-old Mahmoud Shafiq Mohamed Mostafa as the suicide bomber behind the attack on the St. Peter and St. Paul Church which left at least 25 dead and 49 injured during mass on Sunday.

Egypt's Coptic Pope Tawadros II will lead on Monday the funeral procession for the victims of the Sunday bombing inside a chapel at Cairo's main Coptic Cathedral, a church source told Al-Ahram Arabic news website on Sunday.

The Egyptian army has condemned Sunday's "cowardly" bomb attack targeting churchgoers at the Coptic Cathedral in Cairo's Abbassiya district, saying it will only increase the people's determination and solidarity in the face of terrorism and extremism.

An improvised explosive device (IED) with 12kg of TNT caused the explosion in the Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Abbasiya, according to a security official’s statement to state media. The death toll stands at 25 with 49 injured, according to state TV.

Afghan and American officials are increasingly worried that any deepening of ties between Russia and Taliban militants fighting to topple the government in Kabul could complicate an already precarious security situation.

Osama Morsi, the son of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, was arrested Thursday at his home in Sharqiya over charges related to what has been dubbed in the media as the Rabaa dispersal trial, according to Morsi's defense team.

Iraqi forces battled Islamist militants deep inside Mosul Wednesday, edging closer to the River Tigris that divides the city and looking for a breakthrough in the seven-week-old offensive. The fighting to retake the Islamic State (IS) group's last major stronghold in Iraq has prompted a steady trickle of people to leave their homes, many taking refuge in camps where nighttime temperatures have dipped below freezing.

The Egyptian Armed Forces announced in a statement on Wednesday that life is gradually returning to normal in North Sinai's Shiekh Zuwaid city following a days-long military operation that aimed to "cleanse [the city] of terrorists."