The black Humvee slaloming between car bomb carcasses and mortar craters stops to let fleeing civilians cross and then resumes its tooth-loosening ride down the churned up west Mosul street.

The past week has seen extraordinary political turmoil in Washington, as President Donald Trump faces grave accusations that he has obstructed justice.

Allegations that President Donald Trump revealed top secret intelligence to a high-level Russian delegation to the White House have raised questions as to whether any crime was committed, and what the legal consequences might be.

Iran, the Middle East's second largest power by economy and population, is the Shiite Muslim rival of regional Sunni giant Saudi Arabia.

The main section of a camp for the displaced in the northern Syrian town of Ain Issa is full, but civilians fleeing the Islamic State group keep on arriving.

Iran's presidential election Friday is effectively a choice between moderate incumbent Hassan Rouhani and hardline jurist Ebrahim Raisi, with major implications for everything from civil rights to relations with Washington.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces militia is set to lead the fight for the Islamic State group's bastion of Raqa, but its role has stoked tensions between Washington and Turkey.

Security agencies are hunting for those behind a crippling cyberattack which has so far hit hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide, including at government agencies, factories and health services.

Donald Trump and FBI director James Comey, who was fired by the president on Tuesday, have been on a collision course since last year when U.S. intelligence discovered a Russian plot to interfere in the presidential election.

Hundreds of Syrian rebels and their families on Monday began evacuating from a district in Damascus for the first time since war broke out six years ago.