Haaretz's latest analyses and opinions on the Middle East: War fever: Overselling the war against Islamic State? (Peter Beinart) | WATCH: Obama's fight against ISIS is a gamble, but one the U.S. is willing to take (Aimee Amiga)

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Latest updates:

2:38 A.M. U.S. launches first offensive strikes against ISIS in Iraq, officials say, going to the aid of Iraqi security forces south of Baghdad who were being attacked by enemy fighters.(AP)

00:08 A.M. The Turkish military is drawing up plans for a possible "buffer zone" on Turkey's southern border, where it faces a threat from Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, Turkish media quoted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying on Monday.

The government would weigh up the plans and decide whether such a move was necessary, Turkish television stations quoted Erdogan as telling reporters on his plane as he returned from an official visit to Qatar.

A presidency official confirmed he had made such remarks but did not specify where along the border the zone might be established and gave no further details. (Reuters)

9:58 P.M. The head of Egypt's Central Bank says it has raised $8.5 billion for the construction of an expansion of the Suez Canal by selling investment certificates.

Hisham Ramez told Al-Hayat TV that the bank secured the funds in just eight days by selling non-tradable certificates with a maturity of five years at 12 percent interest to Egyptian nationals.

He said that by Monday the bank had collected 61 billion Egyptian pounds ($8.5 billion).

On Aug. 5, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi inaugurated the digging of the new section of the canal in a military-led project aimed at expanding the key world trade corridor. He said it would be finished next year. (AP)

6:18 P.M. The United Nations said Monday it has withdrawn its peacekeepers from many positions on the Golan Heights because of escalating fighting in the war between Syrian government forces and opposition fighters.

UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told The Associated Press that he doesn't think every single post has been vacated. The UN peacekeepers withdrawn Monday have been moved to the Israeli side of the border.

"But obviously the situation has deteriorated across a wide span of the territory so we've had to leave from a lot of places," he said. (AP)

6: 27 P.M. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says he won't get into "back and forth" with Iran after Khamenei assertion that U.S. sought talks on Islamic State. (Reuters)

6:22 P.M. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday he had vetoed a U.S. invitation to cooperate in fighting Islamic State, but Washington insisted it would not coordinate militarily with Iran against the militants.

"The American ambassador in Iraq asked our ambassador (in Iraq) for a session to discuss coordinating a fight against Daesh (Islamic State)," said Khamenei, in quotes carried on state news agency IRNA.

"Our ambassador in Iraq reflected this to us, which was welcomed by some (Iranian) officials, but I was opposed. I saw no point in cooperating with a country whose hands are dirty and intentions murky." (Reuters)

6:12 P.M. An Egyptian court on Monday handed life sentences to Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie and 14 other senior members of the banned Islamist group, local media reported.

Brotherhood leaders Mohammed al-Beltagui and Essam al-Erian were among those convicted of organizing deadly riots in Cairo last year after the army toppled President Mohammed Morsi.

Badie has been sentenced to death and to life imprisonment in two previous cases relating to violence that broke out after Morsi's overthrow in July last year, which was followed by a deadly police crackdown on his supporters. (DPA)

12:53 P.M. The head of the UN nuclear watchdog sought to put pressure on Iran on Monday to address concerns about its suspected atomic bomb research, three weeks after Tehran failed to meet a deadline for providing information about the issue.

Confirming the findings of a confidential report by the UN atomic agency earlier this month, Director General Yukiya Amano said Iran had not carried out two of the five transparency steps it had agreed to implement by Aug. 25.

"In order to resolve all outstanding issues, past and present, it is very important that Iran continues to implement, in a timely manner, all practical measures agreed ... ," he told the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency. (Reuters)

12:28 P.M. Egypt's tourism minister on Thursday said the country is boosting security procedures at tourist destinations in an attempt to buoy the flagging tourism sector following three years of political turmoil.

Hisham Zaazoua outlined the new measures in an interview with the Associated Press late Sunday. He said they include increasing the number of security cameras at hotels and tourist destinations and obliging tourism industry workers to submit to mandatory background checks.

Speaking at an international conference on tourism safety on Sunday, he also said Egypt is bolstering airport security and implementing a comprehensive system for monitoring heath standards in hotels. (AP)

12:00 P.M. Relatives say that Egypt's most prominent activist who is standing retrial after being sentenced to 15 years in prison for violating to the country's draconian protest law, has been released on bail.

Mona Seif, sister of blogger Alaa Abdel-Fattah, a vocal government critic since mid-2000, said on her Facebook page that her brother has been granted a release on bail of 5,000 Egyptian pounds ($714) along with two other activists on Monday. His lawyer confirmed the release. She added that the judge presiding over his retrial had stepped down at the request of defense lawyers.

Abdel-Fattah's sentence was the harshest sentence given to secular activists amid authorities' crackdown on Islamists. He was granted a retrial last month on charges of organizing an unauthorized protest last November. (AP)

11:41 A.M. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been discharged from hospital, a week after he underwent prostate surgery.

Official news agency IRNA reported that the 75-year-old Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters and has been Iran's top leader since 1989, was in "good health" following a "successful" operation. Khamenei was admitted to a government hospital in Tehran last Monday. (AP)

10:39 A.M. French President Francois Hollande called on Monday for a global reponse to counter Islamic State militants, saying the group posed a security threat the world over.

"What is the threat? It is global so the response must be global," the French leader said, opening a Paris conference of some 30 countries aimed at coordinating a strategy against the group, which has taken control of parts of Northern Iraq and has a power base in Syria. (Reuters)

9:58 A.M. French aircraft will begin reconnaissance flights over Iraq on Monday, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said before a conference bringing together some 30 countries to discuss how to fight against Islamic State militants.

"We told the Iraqis we were available and asked them for authorisation (to fly over Iraq)," Fabius told Europe 1 radio, confirming that the first flights from a French base in Abu Dhabi would begin on Monday. (Reuters)

2:45 A.M. Terrorists will use Australia's deployment of troops and war planes to the Middle East as an excuse to target Australians, Prime Minister Tony Abbott warned on Monday.

Australia is preparing to contribute 600 troops and up to 10 military aircraft to the increasingly aggressive campaign against the Islamic State extremists in Syria and Iraq, the government announced on Sunday.

"There is no doubt that those who wish us harm will cite things like this as an excuse, but it's not the reason," Abbott told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television. "This death cult targets everyone and anyone who does not conform to its particular ideology," he added, referring to the Islamic State movement. (AP)

2:00 A.M. Iraq's president says Arab powers Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia do not need to join air strikes against the Islamic State group.

In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, President Fouad Massoum also expressed regret that Iran was not invited to take part in the 26-nation conference in Paris on Monday to try to counter the Islamic extremists who control vast parts of Iraq and neighboring Syria.

Massoum says it's "not necessary" for Egypt, UAE or Saudi Arabia to participate in air strikes. (AP)