President Joe Biden’s top Middle East adviser on Tuesday held talks in Doha with senior Qatari leaders on the ongoing efforts to complete a cease-fire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.

An Islamic State group affiliate has claimed responsibility for an attack on a suburban Moscow concert hall that killed at least 133 people.

A new performance center is coming to A2AC in downtown Ann Arbor.

A U.S.-backed Kurdish-led force says that a prison overrun by the Islamic State group in northeastern Syria is now fully under its control.

U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces say they have wrestled control of the last section in a prison controlled by Islamic State militants, ending a weeklong assault by the extremists on one of the largest detention facilities in Syria.

U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces and a war monitor say fighters have begun closing in on the last wing of a prison in northeastern Syria that has been controlled by militants for days.

Afghan authorities say a bomb exploded near a girls’ school in a majority Shiite district of west Kabul on Saturday, killing at least 30 people, many of them young pupils between 11 and 15 years old.

Following a Mass on Sunday in the Iraqi city of Irbil, Francis met with Abdullah Kurdi and spent a long time with him, the Vatican said. Through an interpreter, the pope listened to Kurdi’s story and expressed sympathy for the loss of his family. Francis issued the appeal during a joyful visit to the Christian community of Qaraqosh, on the Nineveh Plains of northern Iraq. Chaldean Catholic Patriarch, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako said Francis’ visit to Iraq was “miraculous” and had already borne fruits. AdChristian and Muslim leaders in Mosul have welcomed Pope Francis' visit to the Iraqi city devastated by war and are calling on Christians who fled the Islamic State group's onslaught to return.

Pope Francis celebrates mass at the Franso Hariri Stadium in Irbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Sunday, March 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)IRBIL – Pope Francis urged Iraq’s Christians on Sunday to forgive the injustices against them by Muslim extremists and to rebuild as he visited the wrecked shells of churches and met ecstatic crowds in the community’s historic heartland, which was nearly erased by the Islamic State group’s horrific reign. Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, was at the heart of the IS so-called “caliphate” and witnessed the worst of the group’s rule inflicted on Muslims, Christians and others, including beheadings and mass killings. Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, became IS’s bureaucratic and financial backbone. Things are difficult for those living here.”At Qaraqosh, Francis urged its residents to continue to dream, and forgive.

FILE - In this March 27, 2020 file photo, U.S. soldiers stand guard during the hand over ceremony of Qayyarah Airfield, Iraqi Security Forces, in the south of Mosul, Iraq. A U.S.-led coalition provided crucial air support as Iraqi forces, including Iran-backed militias, regrouped and drove IS out in a costly three-year campaign. Senior Iraqi military officials in Baghdad say the withdrawal of 500 American troops will have little, if any, impact. “It’s true we have a stronger army, stronger security forces,” said Najm Jibouri, the governor and former head of provincial operations in Nineveh, which includes Mosul. A significant drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq — while popular at home — could reduce his leverage.

Joshua Hammock via AP)WASHINGTON, DC The Latest on the United States and the Islamic State (all times local):5:10 p.m. The head of United States Central Command says Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was buried at sea after a weekend raid on his compound. McKenzie says two children were killed in the explosion set off by the Islamic State leader. __1 p.m.A U.S. counterterrorism official says he expects a new Islamic State leader to emerge after the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and warns that the extremist group's planning of major attacks probably will go on as before. Travers says the killing of IS leader al-Baghdadi by U.S. forces in Syria on Saturday was a "significant" development.

Copyright 2019 CNNWASHINGTON - The White House said Sunday that U.S. forces in northeast Syria will move aside and clear the way for an expected Turkish assault, essentially abandoning Kurdish fighters who fought alongside American forces in the yearslong battle to defeat Islamic State militants. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened for months to launch the military operation across the border. He views the Kurdish forces as a threat to his country. In December, Trump announced he was withdrawing American troops from Syria but was met with widespread condemnation for abandoning Kurdish allies to the Turkish assault. A senior U.S. official said Sunday that American troops will pull back from the security zone in northeastern Syria, where they have been working with Turkish troops, to an unspecified out-of-the-way location.