Intelligence officials in Syria’s new de facto government say they have thwarted a plan by the Islamic State group to set off a bomb at a Shiite shrine in the Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab.

The Lebanese civilians most devastated by the Israel-Hezbollah war are Shiite Muslims, and many of them believe they are being unfairly punished because they share a religious identity with Hezbollah militants and often live in the same areas.

The Taliban say gunmen have killed 14 people in a Shiite-majority area in central Afghanistan.

Authorities in the Gulf Arab state of Oman say several gunmen burst into a Shiite mosque and opened fire, killing six people and wounding nearly 30 more.

A Taliban official says a minibus has exploded in a mostly Shiite Muslim neighborhood in Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul, killing at least two civilians and wounding 14 others.

The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group says that if governments of Muslim-majority nations do not act against countries that allow desecration of the Quran, Muslims should “punish” those who facilitate attacks on Islam's holy book.

Millions of Shiite Muslims in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and around the world are commemorating Ashoura.

Kuwait says it executed five prisoners including an inmate convicted over the bombing of a Shiite mosque in 2015 that killed 27 people and was claimed by the Islamic State group.

Officials say thousands of mourners have attended the mass funeral of seven minority Shiite teachers who were shot and killed at a school in northwestern Pakistan.

Thousands of Shiites gathered in Baghdad for a counter-rally called by Iran-backed groups against their rival, an influential cleric whose followers are staging a sit-in inside the Iraqi parliament, have left the area.

Iraq still doesn’t have a government, eight months since national elections took place, and there seems no clear way out of the dangerous deadlock.

Explosions across Afghanistan have killed at least 10 people and wounded scores more.

At least six people have been killed and dozens wounded in armed clashes in Beirut.

Iraqis have voted in parliamentary elections held months ahead of schedule as a concession to a youth-led uprising against corruption and mismanagement.

The Taliban have ruled out cooperation with the U.S. to contain extremist groups in Afghanistan.

FILE - This March, 13, 2019 handout file photo from the office of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, shows senior Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf. The pontiff and ayatollah will meet in al-Sistanis modest home in the Iraqi city of Najaf. (Office of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, via AP, File)One highlight of Pope Francis' historic visit to Iraq is his meeting Saturday with a revered religious leader for Shiite Muslims, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. ___The 90-year-old al-Sistani is the top Shiite cleric in Iraq and a powerhouse in the Shiite world. After the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein, al-Sistani emerged as a powerful voice in Iraq’s political process — a symbol of the ascent of Iraq's Shiite majority after the war.

It said officers seized bomb-making material and guns that were to be used in sectarian attacks by the arrested men. Authorities did not name the country but officials have previously blamed Iran for backing Shiite militants. Pakistani security forces often make such arrests, but the latest ones came just after Sunni militants killed 11 Shiite coal miners they had abducted from southwestern Baluchistan. Shiites have been demanding a crackdown against Sunni outlawed Sipah-e-Sahaba group which has killed scores of Shiite Muslims throughout Pakistan in the past several years. Islamic State and other Sunni extremist groups view Shiites as apostates and they frequently target them in deadly attacks.

A health worker sprays disinfectant to sanitize the inside of the holy shrine of Imam Abbas during Muharram procession in Karbala, Iraq, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020. Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar, is a month of mourning for Shiites in remembrance of the death of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the Battle of Karbala in present-day Iraq in the 7th century. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)