Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has called US forces deployed in Syria "invaders" but said he saw promise in US President Donald Trump's vow to prioritise the fight against ISIL.

About 500 US troops are in Syria in support of the campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

Israel has approved hundreds of new settlement homes in occupied East Jerusalem, after the staunch pro-Israel US President Donald Trump took office.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he wants to talk soon to the new US president to "counter the threat" from Iran's government, which he accused of threatening its citizens' freedom.

"I plan to speak soon with President [Donald] Trump about how to counter the threat of Iranian regime which calls for Israel's destruction," Netanyahu said in a video message posted on his Facebook page on Saturday.

In the video, Netanyahu also addressed the people of Iran in English, with Persian subtitles.

"We are your friend, not your enemy," he said.

"The regime is cruel - the people are not; the regime is aggressive - the people are warm ... You have a proud history. You have a rich culture. Tragically, you are shackled by a theocratic tyranny," he said.

Before his inauguration on Friday, Trump had repeatedly denounced a nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers, including the United States, which Israel has also staunchly criticised.

Bahrain has executed three men found guilty of killing three policemen, including an Emirati officer, prosecutors in the island kingdom said. The three faced the firing squad on Sunday, a week after a court upheld their death sentences over a bomb attack in March 2014, the prosecution said in a statement carried by the official BNA state news agency.

US military in Afghanistan says investigation into November gunfight confirms civilian casualties, including children. A US military investigation has found that air raids targeting the Taliban during a gun battle in northern Afghanistan last year killed 33 civilians.

Israeli media have reported the existence of an audiotape that is increasing pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing an inquiry into corruption allegations.

Iran's ex-President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a dominant figure in the country's politics since the 1980s, has died at the age of 82, media say.

At least four Israeli soldiers have been killed and several more wounded after a truck rammed into the troops in Jerusalem with authorities calling it a deliberate attack.

At least 12 people have been killed and 50 wounded in a car bomb blast in eastern Baghdad, police and medics say, in an attack claimed by the armed group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Turkey has dismissed more than 6,000 people and ordered the closure of dozens of associations under the state of emergency imposed after the failed coup in July, in a purge that showed no sign of slowing.

More than 100,000 people have already been suspended or sacked so far in a crackdown on those alleged to have links to coup plotters while dozens of media outlets have been shut down.

At least nine people have been killed and 15 others wounded in a car bomb attack that hit a market in a mostly Shia neighbourhood of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

The identity of the gunman who killed 39 people in the New Year's attack on an Istanbul nightclub has been established, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said in a televised interview.

Israeli police have questioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of an inquiry into corruption allegations.

He was asked about "receiving benefits from business people", justice ministry officials said without giving details.

ISIL members attacked an Iraqi police checkpoint near the southern city of Najaf, killing seven policemen as government forces in the north made more gains against the fighters in Mosul, their last major stronghold in the country.

The Syrian government has suspended the evacuation of civilians and fighters from eastern Aleppo, accusing rebels of breaking terms of the deal.

Government sources said rebels had blocked the evacuation of civilians from two pro-government towns elsewhere in Syria, agreed under the truce.