Morocco prosecuted twice as many suspected jihadists in 2014 than in the previous year, the state prosecutor said Thursday, linking the rise to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

"The number of terrorism-related cases last year stood at 147, compared to 64 in 2013," El Hassan Eddaki was quoted as saying by the MAP news agency.

The public gallery at a court in the Netherlands was as deserted as the defendant's dock on a recent day at the trial of five Hizbullah suspects in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, one of the most prominent Sunni politicians in the Middle East.

The massive explosion that tore through his convoy on the Beirut seaside 10 years ago sent a tremor across the region and unleashed a popular uprising that briefly united the Lebanese and ejected Syrian troops from the country. But a decade later, and despite millions of dollars spent, justice remains elusive in a case that has been overshadowed by more recent turmoil.

The Lebanese army defused on Wednesday around 25 kilograms of explosives on the outskirts of the eastern town of Arsal.

“A patrol for the intelligence unit located overnight a 25 kg bomb in the area of Ras al-Sarj placed on the road used by army units to reach Wadi al-Raayan,” the military said in a communique.

A Japanese journalist accused the government of muzzling the press Thursday after officials confiscated his passport to stop him from travelling to war-torn Syria.

Freelance photographer Yuichi Sugimoto, 58, said he will file an appeal over the move, and was prepared to take legal action to get his travel documents back.

King Abdullah II of Jordan expressed readiness to aid and train the Lebanese army as Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq began an official visit to Amman.

“We are one... Jordan is ready to offer the Lebanese army all its needs of arms and military equipment, including free training at all our bases,” sources quoted King Abdullah II as saying in comments in al-Mustaqbal newspaper on Thursday.

Baghdad has not requested foreign ground forces to battle the Islamic State group, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jafaari said Thursday after Barack Obama called for military operations that stop short of a full-scale invasion.

The U.S. president said Wednesday he would not flinch from sending U.S. special forces to kill Islamic State group leaders, as he urged Congress for authority to take the fight to the extremists beyond their current footholds in Syria and Iraq if necessary.

A U.S.-led coalition battling Islamic State extremists in Iraq and Syria is "on the offensive" and will prevail, President Barack Obama vowed Wednesday after asking Congress to back the war effort.

Obama also said that the United States "should not get dragged back into another prolonged ground war in the Middle East," but noted that he would be ready to deploy special forces in specific situations.

Syrian air force bombardment of a besieged rebel-held area east of Damascus has left poorly equipped doctors barely able to treat the wounded, a medical charity said Wednesday.

In the besieged Eastern Ghouta area, "the number of patients treated in the hospitals we support has gone beyond breaking point," said Dr Bart Janssens, director of operations for Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

President Barack Obama on Wednesday asked Congress to back a global war against the Islamic State group, albeit with curbs on his ability to send in U.S. ground forces.

Tantamount to a declaration of war, the authority would provide Obama political cover at home and a firmer legal basis on which to prosecute the fight.

Meet Nassrin Abdallah. With her diminutive height and broad smile, it doesn't seem like she should strike fear into the hearts of hardened Islamic State jihadists.

But this 36-year-old Syrian Kurd woman has been at the tip of the spear of the Kurdish forces that last month liberated the symbolic city of Kobane from IS militants.