The Aga Khan IV has been laid to rest in Egypt in a private ceremony.

Protesters in Pakistan’s restive northwest chanted anti-government slogans and tensions flared as funeral prayers were held for 42 Shiite Muslims who were ambushed and killed by gunmen a day earlier.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah led the Lebanese militant group for the past three decades, transforming it into one of the most powerful paramilitary groups in the Middle East.

Baghdad’s streets are nearly empty on Monday, the main day of polling in the country’s first provincial elections in a decade.

Denmark’s foreign minister says the government will seek to make it illegal to desecrate the Quran or other holy books in front of foreign embassies.

Hundreds of followers of the influential Iraqi Shiite cleric and political leader Muqtada Sadr have briefly stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad in protest of the burning of a Quran in Sweden.

This photo gallery highlights some of the most compelling images made or published by Associated Press photographers in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan in March 2023.

Iraqi lawmakers elected a new president in a key step toward ending a year-long political vacuum.

A group of Afghan women has protested a suicide bombing that killed or wounded dozens of students in a Shiite education center in the capital Kabul, demanding better security from the Taliban-run government.

Four security officers have been wounded as four rockets landed in Baghdad's Green Zone government area.

The United Nations is calling on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to reopen schools to girls in grades 7 through12, calling the anniversary of their exclusion from high school “shameful.”.

Iraqi security officials say four militiamen have been killed in reprisal attacks between rival Shiite militia groups.

Iraqi paramilitary forces killed in heavy clashes have been laid to rest as the country's parliament speaker called for three days of mourning for the dozens killed.

Iraq’s caretaker prime minister has warned that the political crisis in the country is threatening security achievements made in past years.

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have held a mass prayer called for by an influential Shiite cleric in Baghdad, a highly symbolic move amid an unprecedented political crisis roiling Iraq.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis are attending a mass prayer in Baghdad called for by an influential Shiite cleric.

Dozens of lawmakers who make up the biggest bloc in Iraq's parliament have resigned amid a prolonged political impasse.

Iraqi lawmakers have passed a bill criminalizing any normalization of ties and any relations, including business ties, with Israel.

A U.S. advisory body says that Afghanistan should join a list of the world's worst violators of religious freedom.

A Taliban official says a bombing at a mosque and religious school in northern Afghanistan has killed at least 33 people, including students of a religious school.

An Afghan police spokesman says explosions targeting educational institutions in Kabul have killed at least six civilians and wounded 17 others.

Iraq’s new parliament has reelected its speaker for a second term, the first step toward forming a new government after a general election whose results have been contested by powerful Iran-backed factions.

Pro-Iran Shiite militias that emerged as the biggest losers in Iraq's parliamentary elections three weeks ago are still rejecting the outcome of the vote.

The Islamic State group says its members are responsible for a deadly suicide bombing on a Shiite mosque in southern Afghanistan.

Suicide bombers have struck a Shiite mosque in southern Afghanistan that was packed with worshippers attending Friday prayers.

The Taliban say Washington has agreed to provide humanitarian aid to a desperately poor Afghanistan on the brink of an economic disaster, while refusing to give political recognition to the country’s new rulers.

U.S. and Iraqi officials say the mission of U.S. forces in Iraq has shifted to training and advisory roles, allowing for redeployment of combat forces that remain in the country.

(AP Photo/Yara Nardi, pool)BUDAPEST – Pope Francis will travel to Hungary's capital in September where he will participate in the closing Mass of a multiday, international Catholic gathering, according to the cardinal of Hungary's Roman Catholic Church. Francis will instead visit on the final day of the eight-day 52nd Congress in Budapest on Sept. 12, he said. Ad“Today we can perhaps learn the most from Pope Francis, and not only about faith and humanity. Traveling back to the Vatican from a trip to Iraq on Monday, the pope told Italian media that following his visit to Budapest he may visit Bratislava, the capital of neighboring Slovakia. While that visit isn't confirmed, Slovakia's president, Zuzana Caputova, said she had invited the pontiff to visit during a meeting in the Vatican in December.

Francis said the idea of a trip “cooks over time in my conscience,” and that the pandemic was the issue that weighed most heavily on him. Francis, the Vatican delegation and traveling media were vaccinated against COVID-19, while most Iraqis haven't been. Francis said he wasn’t sure if he would have to slow down his usual whirlwind pace on future trips. Otherwise, the only other trip Francis has promised to make is to Lebanon, though he offered no time frame. He said the country's patriarch had asked him to add a Beirut leg onto his Iraq trip but that he had declined, thinking it would be like tossing the country “crumbs," given all Lebanon’s current problems.

Followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, in the posters, gather in Tahrir Square, Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Nov. 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)BAGHDAD – Supporters of a firebrand Iraqi cleric shot dead five people on Saturday, according to medical officials, in overnight clashes with anti-government protesters in southern Iraq. Following the clashes beginning on Friday, al-Sadr’s supporters stormed Haboubi square, and torched tents pitched in the square. Anti-government protesters feel betrayed by al-Sadr’s flip-flop approach toward them, especially in the last few months when he withdrew support for their movement. Dozens returned to the anti-government sit-in's site on Saturday morning in support of those protesters killed overnight.

(CNN) - The Israeli military Saturday said it foiled a "pending large-scale attack" by Iranian forces and Shiite militia on targets in Israel with a series of airstrikes near Damascus. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed responsibility for the airstrikes, saying it thwarted Iranian drone attacks on Israel, according to a statement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in acknowledging Israel's responsibility for the attacks, said on Twitter, "I repeat: Iran has no immunity anywhere. The IDF issued its statement shortly after Syrian state-run news agency SANA said Syria's military intercepted "hostile targets" in the skies above Damascus. Residents in Damascus, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, told CNN the sounds of the blasts seemed to come from near the Damascus airport.

A student holds poster during a protest for the release of Nigerian Shiite leader Ibrahim Zakzaky outside the Nigerian embassy in Tehran on July 17, 2019. ABUJA, Nigeria - Nigeria's imprisoned Shiite leader Ibrahim Zakzaky has been granted permission to travel to India for medical treatment, a spokesman confirmed to CNN on Monday. Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) spokesman Abubakar Abdulrahman said Zakzaky's health deteriorated after suffering a stroke last year. Shiite Muslims in Nigeria and Iran have been protesting against his continued detention nearly four years ago following a military crackdown on his followers. There are an estimated 3 million Shiite Muslims in Nigeria, mostly residing in states in the north.