Dozens of Afghan soldiers and policemen have been killed in the southern province of Helmand since Sunday as the Taliban presses an in one of its heartlands, officials said.

France and Turkey have branded the bombing of two schools and five hospitals in Syria as “war crimes”, while hopes for a ceasefire faded as Bashar al-Assad played down any prospect of a truce.

28 Palestinians have been injured during Monday clashes with Israel Defense Forces soldiers in the Al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah.

Saudi-led airstrikes and recent clashes have killed at least 59 Houthi militas, including prominent leaders, with dozens injured, Al Arabiya News reported Monday.

Armed forces from around 20 countries were gathering in northern Saudi Arabia Sunday for “the most important” military maneuver ever staged in the region, the official news agency SPA reported.

U.S. President Barack Obama urged Russia on Sunday to stop bombing “moderate” rebels in Syria in support of its ally Bashar al-Assad, a campaign seen in the West as a major obstacle to latest efforts to end the war.

Israeli forces have shot dead five Palestinians, including three teenagers, in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, after they allegedly attacked Israeli forces.

Saudi Arabia has sent aircraft to NATO-member Turkey’s Incirlik air base for the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian woman as she tried to stab a soldier in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday, the army said in a statement.

A report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research has said that nearly 12 percent of the Syrian population have been killed or injured in civil war.