The United States warned Wednesday that it would not recognize an attempt by Kurdish groups in war-torn Syria to form an autonomous federal region.

Washington has supported and encouraged the Kurdish parties of the area in their fight against a common foe, the Islamic State jihadist group.

The widow of a Palestinian militant who died under mysterious circumstances in Bulgaria last month accused authorities on Wednesday of keeping her in the dark about their investigation.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Wednesday it remains to be seen whether Russia's announcement it is withdrawing forces from Syria will lead to a genuine pullout.

Hamas' military wing said Wednesday one of its members was involved in an attack in the occupied West Bank, in what was thought to be the first such acknowledgment since a wave of violence began in October.

Three suspected al-Qaida militants on a motorbike were killed Wednesday as a bomb they were transporting exploded in the southern Yemeni city of Aden, a security official said.

The Islamic State group has lost 22 percent of the territory it held at the start of 2015, military analysts IHS Jane's said Wednesday, as U.S. and Russian air strikes have helped the jihadists' opponents advance.

IS controls swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria but lost 14 percent of it last year and a further eight percent this year, according to the IHS Conflict Monitor.

A Saudi national convicted of murder was executed Wednesday, bringing to 73 the number of people put to death in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom this year, the interior ministry said.

Omar al-Rabie was found guilty of shooting to death Ghanem Salem following a dispute, the ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

Two-thirds of Syria's Christians have left the country, an Aleppo bishop said Wednesday, blaming violence and insecurity spread by extremist groups and insisting most Christians still support the Syrian president.

Chaldean Catholic bishop Antoine Audo said there were about 1.5 million Christians in the country before the start of the conflict in March 2011.

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday will bestow state awards on Russian military personnel who fought in Syria after ordering the withdrawal of armed forces from the war-torn country, the Kremlin said.

More than 700 soldiers and officers from the Russian air forces, ground forces and navy, and other military officials, have been invited to take part in the ceremony, the Kremlin said in a statement on Wednesday.

Libya's unrecognized authorities in control of Tripoli warned a new U.N.-backed unity government on Wednesday that it would not be welcome in the capital.

"A government that has been imposed from abroad without the consensus of Libyans... has no place amongst us," the so-called Tripoli government said in a statement.