LIVE BLOG: The Middle East as it happens

The United Nations Special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has called for for urgent international action to stop IS taking over the city of Kobane on Syria's northern border with Turkey.

A suicide car bomb blast at a police checkpoint in the Iraqi city of Baquba Thursday killed at least 10 people and wounded 11, security and medical sources said.

"At least 10 people, including seven policemen, were killed when a suicide attacker rammed his car bomb into a police checkpoint at an entrance of the Shifta neighbourhood," an army officer said.

Shifta is a central district of Baquba, a city which lies around 60 kilometres northeast of the capital Baghdad.

The army officer said the attack occurred at around 4:00 pm (1300 GMT) and also wounded 11 people, including seven policemen.

A senior local police official and a doctor at Baquba general hospital both confirmed the casualty figures.

Baquba is the capital of the restive and religiously mixed province of Diyala, where Kurdish peshmerga, federal forces and allied militia have been battling the Islamic State group.

AFP

The first trials of prisoners accused of "terrorism" in Tunisia since the 2011 revolution could open later this month, with 600 defendants facing prosecution, its justice minister said Thursday.

Hafedh Ben Salah told AFP in an interview that the defendants included Al-Qaeda-linked militants who have been battling the Tunisian army near the Algerian border for nearly two years.

Since the uprising that ousted former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, Tunisia has seen a proliferation of militias suppressed under the former dictator.

These groups have been blamed for a wave of attacks, including the assassination last year of two opposition lawmakers whose murders plunged the country into a protracted political crisis.

Suspected jihadists have also launched skirmishes against the army in the remote southern Mount Chaambi area since late 2012, killing dozens of soldiers and police.

In July, militants killed 15 soldiers in the restive border region, the bloodiest day in the army's history.

Other detainees awaiting their trial include suspects who "took part in (terrorist) acts or were preparing to do so," said Ben Salah.

"Since the revolution, I think there have been no terrorists who stood trial but I think that the first cases will come to court towards the end of the month," he said.

According to the justice minister "there are 1,000-1,020 cases linked to terrorism" in Tunisia and "around 600 suspects jailed for terrorism".

He said police had arrested between 2,000-3,000 people since the revolution but that most suspects were released due to a lack of evidence.

"Some judges are vexed when it is said 'the police carry out arrests and the judge sets people free or dismisses a charge for lack of evidence'," Ben Salah said.

"The fact is, everyone has a role to play. The police cannot choose (who is guilty)... the judge will later decide if the suspect is in effect linked to terrorism." 

AFP

Kurdish fighters appeared to control most of the Syrian border town of Kobane Thursday amid continued US air strikes on Islamic State militants, the US military said.

US Central Command said American bombers, fighter aircraft and drones struck five times south of Kobane, damaging or destroying an IS training camp, a building and two vehicles. 

The strikes also hit two IS combat units, one small and the other large, said the command, which oversees US military operations in the region.

"US Central Command continues to monitor the situation in Kobane closely," it said. "Indications are that Kurdish militia there continue to control most of the city and are holding out against ISIL."

ISIL is an alternative acronym for the Islamic State group.

AFP

Hezbollah claims to have driven the Al-Nusra Front from the strategic Umm Khorj outpost in Lebanon's eastern mountain range.

“The jihadist fighters of the resistance (Hezbollah) captured the post which stands at 2,300 meters above sea level and constitutes a strategic hill that overlooks the mountains of Assal al-Ward, al-Khashaat and al-Jibbeh in Qalamoun,” the sources said.

Rumours have circulated that YPG fighters or airstrikes may have killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Kobane.

A photo has been circulated on Twitter - the reports are definitely unconfirmed and IS supporters have claimed it is false.

The Palestinian unity government is in Gaza for the first time since the end of the Israeli bombardment in September.

Hamas on Wednesday welcomed the visit by the Palestinian unity government led by Prime Minister Rami al-Hamdallah.

"We welcome the unity government in Gaza and we urge it to shoulder its responsibilities toward the Gaza people," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a press release.

AFP:

A powerful suicide bomb in the Yemeni capital on Thursday killed at least 43 people in an attack on supporters of Shiite insurgents who have overrun the city, medics said.

Dozens more were wounded in the blast which struck Sanaa's Al-Tahrir square as supporters of the rebels were preparing to stage a protest, medics and rebel sources said.

Medics at nearby Police Hospital sent urgent calls for doctors to help cope with a high number of casualties.

AFP:

Islamic State fighters were in control Thursday of more than one-third of the Syrian border town of Kobane after pushing back its Kurdish defenders, a monitoring group said.

"Despite fierce resistance from the Kurdish forces, IS advanced during the night and controls more than a third of Kobane," Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.

He said a Kurdish militia leader and several of his men were killed when IS captured a building they were using as a base in the northeast of the town.

The advance of IS fighters came despite intensified US-led air strikes aimed at preventing Kobane from falling into the hands of the group.

The town, also known as Ain al-Arab, would be a major prize for the IS group, giving it unbroken control of a long stretch of Syria's border with Turkey.

Al-Jazeera is reporting that Syrian opposition forces have taken over strategic areas in suburbs of Aleppo and Homs after violent clashes with Assad troops.

12 soldiers were killed in the clashes.

An explosion in Sana'a's Tahrir Square has reportedly killed 20 people who were gathering for a pro-Houthi demonstration.

Though no-one has claimed responsibility for the explosion, people at the scene are blaming Al-Qaeda.