A picture taken on September 16, 2017 shows masked members of the Imam Ali Division, one of the groups fighting within the Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) paramilitaries, marching with machine guns in a military parade in the holy shrine city of Najaf in central Iraq. (Haidar HAMDANI / AFP)

Iraqi Kurds wave Kurdish flags and hold torches as they walk up a mountain during a gathering to show support for the upcoming independence referendum and encourage people to vote in the town of Akra, some 500 kilometres north of Baghdad on September 10, 2017. (SAFIN HAMED / AFP)

An aerial view shows Muslim pilgrims circumambulating the Kaaba, Islam's holiest shrine, at the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca on September 3, 2017, during the annual Hajj pilgrimage. (BANDAR ALDANDANI / AFP)

Lebanese Maronite Christian couples take part in a mass wedding at the Maronite Patriarchate in Bkerke on September 3, 2017. Twenty-six couples got married during the event organised by the Maronite league. (AFP)

A Syrian boy plays on a swing in a destroyed building in the rebel-held town of Douma, on the eastern outskirts of Damascus, as Muslims celebrate the third day of the Eid al-Adha holiday on September 3, 2017. (AFP)

Al Bawaba's Cartoon of of the Week: Trump's Afghanistan Strategy

Iranian Kurdish Peshmerga members of the Iranian Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP-Iran) clean their weapons during routine military exercise in Koya, 100 kms north of Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, on August 23, 2017. (AFP)

Palestinians attend the screening of "10 Years" at Samer Cinema in Gaza City on August 26, 2017. The Samer Cinema in Gaza City, the oldest in the strip and was built in 1944 but closed for decades, hosted a special screening of a film about Palestinians in Israeli prisons. (AFP)

A Syrian refugee on a wheelchair waits on August 28, 2017 at the Oncupinar crossing gate, close to the town of Kilis, south central Turkey, as they wait to cross to Syria for the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday. Turkish authorities allow Syrian refugees to visit their country for Eid-Al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) celebrities. (AFP)

Fighters from the Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation units), backing the Iraqi forces, pose with the Iraqi flag from Tal Afar's Ottoman-era historic citadel after troops took control of the area during an operation to retake the city from the Islamic State (IS) group on August 27, 2017. Iraqi forces backed by local militia and a US-led coalition were poised to drive the Islamic State group from Tal Afar, dealing another blow to the jihadists. (AFP)

An Iranian woman rides a horse by the Caspian Sea coast in the port city of Gisum, in the northern province of Gilan on August 23, 2017. (AFP)

Footwear belonging to victims of a suicide attack on a Shiite mosque are seen in a pile outside the mosque premises a day after the attack, in Kabul on August 26, 2017. A suicide bomb and gun attack claimed by the Islamic State group on a Shiite mosque in Kabul killed 20 people and wounded scores more on August 25, officials said, the latest assault to highlight deteriorating security in Afghanistan. (AFP)

Muslim pilgrims circumambulate the Kaaba, Islam's holiest shrine, at the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca on August 27, 2017, prior to the start of the annual Hajj pilgrimage. (AFP)

Yemenis stand in protest amidst the debris of a house, hit in an air strike on a residential district, in the capital Sanaa on August 26, 2017. Children were among at least 14 people killed in an air strike that toppled residential blocks in Yemen's capital Sanaa on Friday, witnesses and medics said. (AFP)

Syrian girls pose for a photograph against a bullet-riddled wall in the rebel-held village of Kafr Ghan, in the northern countryside of Aleppo, on August 28, 2017. (AFP)