An aide to Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza was killed in an attack on his car on Sunday.

Gen Adolphe Nshimirimana, a former army chief of staff and intelligence chief, was targeted by armed men in the capital Bujumbura's Kamenge district.

The general is reported to have been in charge of the president's security and responsible for a heavy-handed crackdown on demonstrations opposed to Mr Nkurunziza's decision to run for an unconstitutional third term.

Presidential adviser Willy Nyamitwe told Reuters: "He has been killed by a bullet... He was in the car with some bodyguards but I don't know exactly what happened."

The violence continued on Monday, with prominent rights activist Pierre Claver Mbonimpa also attacked in Bujumbura. Mr Mbonimpa, a stern critic of the president, was shot and seriously wounded by gunmen on motorbikes.

The US has for the first time provided support to defend Syrian militants, trained by the US.

Pentagon spokesperson Capt Jeff Davis said "defensive support fire" was provided to the militants last Friday, while they were engaging suspected al-Nusra fighters.

The US-trained militants from the New Syria Force, were fighting alongside the Free Syrian Army.

Capt Davis said the US would provide defensive fire support to the NSF "no matter whom they came up against".

PKK militants attacked a military police station in Turkey's south-east, killing two Turkish soldiers and injuring 31.

The suicide attack by the Kurds came after hundreds of air strikes on PKK positions in Turkey and Iraq by the Turkish military.

Turkey's state news agency, Anadolu, said a tractor carrying two tons of explosives was detonated by a PKK bomber.

The agency says about 260 Kurdish fighters have been killed in strikes in northern Iraq and Turkey since 24 July.

US Secretary of State John Kerry outlined his intention of securing greater support for a UN peace plan in Libya, reports Reuters.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister, Sameh Shukri, Mr Kerry said,

At least 1,332 Iraqis have been killed in violence against Islamic State militants, said the UN in figures released on Saturday.

The UN mission in Iraq said at least 844 of the dead were civilians. The UN statistics do not include figures from territory held by Islamic State militants.

Amnesty International released a report claiming that there is “strong evidence” Israel committed war crimes during an offensive launched in Gaza last year.

Following the capture of Israeli soldier Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, Israeli security forces launched an offensive into Gaza, which reportedly saw at least 135 Palestinians killed. Most of the deaths are said to have taken place in the first few hours after his capture. More than 1,000 artillery shells in Rafah and dropped more than 40 bombs were dropped on the town of Rafah during the operation.

“There is overwhelming evidence that Israeli forces committed disproportionate, or otherwise indiscriminate, attacks which killed scores of civilians in their homes, on the streets and in vehicles and injured many more,” said Amnesty International.

The report, based on joint research with the group Forensic Architecture, went on to say “public statements by Israeli army commanders and soldiers after the conflict provide compelling reasons to conclude that some attacks that killed civilians and destroyed homes and property were intentionally carried out and motivated by a desire for revenge – to teach a lesson to, or punish, the population of Rafah for the capture of Lieutenant Goldin”.

Russia has exercised its veto at the UN Security Council to block a move to set up an international criminal tribunal into the MH17 disaster.

Russia was the only country in the council to veto the resolution, which had 11 countries vote in favour of the move. Angola, China and Venezuela abstained.

Responding to the veto, US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said, “It is tragic that Russia has used the privilege entrusted to it in order to advance international peace and security ... to frustrate international peace and security”.

“But let us be clear,” she added, “today’s veto cannot and will not deny the victims and their families justice”.

Records suggest that the United Nations spent half a billion dollars on contracts with a Russian aviation company after discovering one of its helicopter crews working in the Democratic Republic of Congo drugged and raped a teenage girl.

Turkey launched its heaviest offensive on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, since the start of their military campaign in the region.

The strikes hit shelters and depots belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), reports Reuters.

Iraq condemned the air strikes as an “escalation and an assault on Iraqi sovereignty.”