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DIJON, France — A Frenchman who ploughed into pedestrians shouting "Allahu Akbar" had been to psychiatric hospital 157 times and had no known links to jihadist groups, a prosecutor said Monday, easing concerns the attack was inspired by Islamic extremism.

The incident in the eastern town of Dijon left 13 people hurt in a scene one witness described as "apocalyptic" and came a day after a man assaulted police in the central town of Joue-les-Tours with a knife, slashing one officer in the face.

That man, who was shot dead, had also reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" — an Islamic phrase that has previously been used by extremists when waging violent attacks — prompting speculation both assaults were motivated by radical Islamism.

But French leaders were quick to play down any links between the two incidents, with President Francois Hollande urging the French not to panic and government spokesman Stephane Le Foll warning against "lumping them together".

In Saturday's attack, Bertrand Nzohabonayo, a French convert to Islam who was born in Burundi, was shot dead after entering a police station in Joue-les-Tours armed with a knife, seriously wounding two officers and hurting another.

The assault prompted the government to step up security at police and fire stations nationwide.

Nzohabonayo had previously committed petty offences but was not on a domestic intelligence watch list although his brother Brice is known for his radical views and once pondered going to Syria.

Brice was arrested in Burundi soon after the Saturday incident, intelligence services there said Monday.

"He has been detained at our premises and he is being questioned," intelligence spokesman Telesphore Bigirimana told AFP.

The anti-terror branch of the Paris prosecutor's office quickly took over a probe into the attack amid heightened vigilance over potential "lone wolf" attacks by individuals heeding calls for violence by the Islamic State jihadist group.

The radical group has repeatedly singled out France for such attacks, most recently in a video posted on jihadist sites.

Bertrand Nzohabonayo, who had taken the name Bilal when he converted to Islam, had posted a flag of the Islamic State group on his Facebook page Thursday, although people who knew him said at the weekend they refused to believe the attack was spurred by radical Islamism.

The second attack on Sunday also saw the assailant shout "Allahu Akbar", witnesses told police.

The driver targeted groups of passers-by at five different locations in Dijon in a rampage that lasted around half- an-hour, before being arrested.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who visited the town on Monday, said 13 people were injured in the rampage though none of the victims are critical.

Local prosecutor Marie-Christine Tarrare told reporters that the man, born in 1974, had a "long-lasting and severe psychological disorder" and had visited psychiatric hospital 157 times.

She said he told police that he ploughed into people due to a sudden "outburst of empathy for the children of Chechnya".

CAIRO — Qatari-owned Al Jazeera suspended broadcast of its Egypt-focused channel on Monday, citing a product restructuring, as Doha and Cairo seek to mend ties that deteriorated last year after the army toppled elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Qatar was one of the main supporters of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood during their year in power. Ties between Egypt and Qatar have been strained since then-army chief Abdel Fattah Al Sisi ousted Morsi in July 2013 after protests against his rule.

Cairo has accused Al Jazeera of being a mouthpiece for the now-banned Brotherhood — which it denies — and security forces closed its offices in the Egyptian capital hours after Morsi's ouster.

But the network continued to broadcast its Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr (AJMM), which covered daily protests by supporters of the Brotherhood, from Doha, irritating Egypt's leaders.

The decision to end those broadcasts follows a meeting on Saturday between Sisi, who has since won a presidential election, and a special envoy of the emir of Qatar. The meeting was the latest step in a Saudi-brokered effort to repair relations.

Saudi King Abdullah last month called on Egypt to back a deal under which Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain agreed to end an eight-month diplomatic dispute over Qatar's support for the Brotherhood and promotion of "Arab Spring" revolts.

Sisi has also suggested that he is considering pardoning three Al Jazeera journalists currently jailed on charges of aiding a "terrorist organisation" by spreading lies.

Qatar is seen to have been supportive of the Brotherhood in Egypt, the UAE, and more recently Libya. It had given sanctuary to some Brotherhood members but in September asked seven senior figures from the group to leave, following months of pressure from its neighbours.

Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia all list the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation and see political Islam as a threat to their own systems of rule.

Al Jazeera said it was rolling AJMM into a new channel reporting live events from around the world, not just Egypt.

"AJMM has meanwhile temporarily ceased broadcasting until such time as necessary permits are issued for its return to Cairo in coordination with the Egyptian authorities," it said in a statement.

BAGHDAD  — Haider Ali Motar was convicted of terrorism charges about a month ago for helping to carry out a string of Baghdad car bombings on behalf of the Islamic State extremist group. Now, the 21-year old is a reluctant cast member in a popular reality TV show.

"In the Grip of the Law," brings convicted terrorists face-to-face with victims in surreal encounters and celebrates the country's beleaguered security forces. The show, produced by state-run Iraqiyya TV, is among dozens of programmes, cartoons and musical public service announcements aimed at shoring up support for the troops after their humiliating defeat last summer at the hands of the IS, which now controls about a third of the country.

On a chilly, overcast day last week, the crew arrived at the scene of one of the attacks for which Motar was convicted, with a heavily armed escort in eight military pick-up trucks and Humvees. Passing cars clogged the road to watch the drama unfold, but were quickly shooed away by soldiers.

After being pulled from an armoured vehicle, a shackled Motar found himself face-to-face with the seething relatives of the victims of the attack. "Give him to me — I'll tear him to pieces," one of the relatives roared from behind a barbed wire barrier.

A cameraman pinned a microphone on Motar's bright yellow prison jumpsuit as he stood alongside a busy Baghdad highway looking bewildered by his surroundings.

"Say something," the cameraman said to him.

"What am I supposed to say?" a visibly panicked Motar asked.

"It's a mic check! Just count: 1,2,3,4..."

Once the cameras were rolling, the show's host Ahmed Hassan quizzed the still-shackled prisoner. When Motar was confronted by one of the victims, a young man in a wheelchair who lost his father in one of the attacks, the convict began weeping, as the cameras rolled.

Iraq has seen near-daily car bombs and other attacks for more than a decade, both before and after the withdrawal of US-led troops at the end of 2011. But the central message of the show, the filming of which began last year, is that the security forces will bring perpetrators to justice.

"We wanted to produce a programme that offers clear and conclusive evidence, with the complete story, presented and shown to Iraqi audiences," Hassan told The Associated Press. "Through surveillance videos, we show how the accused parked the car, how he blew it up, how he carries out an assassination."

The episodes often detail the trail of evidence that led security forces to make the arrest. Police allow the camera crew to film the evidence — explosive belts, bomb-making equipment or fingerprints and other DNA samples.

"We show our audiences the pictures, along with hard evidence, to leave no doubts that this person is a criminal and paying for his crimes," Hassan said.

All of the alleged terrorists are shown confessing to their crimes in one-on-one interviews. Hassan said the episodes are only filmed after the men have confessed to a judge, insisting it is "impossible" that any of them are innocent.

"The court first takes a preliminary testimony and then they require a legal confession in front of a judge," Hassan explained. "After obtaining the security and legal permission, we are then allowed to film those terrorists."

Human rights groups have long expressed concern over the airing of confessions by prisoners, many of whom have been held incommunicado in secret facilities.

"The justice system is so flawed and the rights of detainees, especially those accused of terrorism [but not only] are so routinely violated that it is virtually impossible to be confident that they would be able to speak freely," Donatella Rovera, of Amnesty International, said in an e-mail.

"In recent months, which I have spent in Iraq, virtually every family I have met who has a relative detained has complained that they do not have access to them, and the same is true for lawyers."

In a September statement, Amnesty cited longstanding concerns about the Iraqi justice system, "where many accused of terrorism have been convicted and sentenced to long prison terms and even to death on the basis of 'confessions’ extracted under torture."

Such concerns are rarely if ever aired on Iraqi TV, where wall-to-wall programming exalts the security forces. Singers embedded with the troops sing nationalist songs during commercial breaks. In another popular programme, called "The Quick Response," a travelling correspondent interviews soldiers, aiming to put a human face on the struggle against the extremists.

Iraqi forces backed by Shiite and Kurdish militias, as well as US-led coalition air strikes, have clawed back some territory following the army's route last summer, when commanders disappeared, calls for reinforcements went unanswered and many soldiers stripped off their uniforms and fled. But around a third of the country — including its second largest city, Mosul — remains under the firm control of militants, and nearly every day brings new bombings in and around the capital.

Back at the makeshift barricade set up for "In the Grip of the Law," security officials insist they are nevertheless sending a message of deterrence.

"Many of these terrorists feel a lot of remorse when they see the victims," said the senior intelligence officer overseeing the shoot, who declined to be named since he often works undercover. "When people see that, it makes them think twice about crossing the law."

DOHA — Qatar has pledged its "full support" to Egypt, an official statement said, ending more than a year of regional isolation over its support for Cairo's ousted Islamist president.

"The security of Egypt is important for the security of Qatar... the two countries are linked by deep and fraternal ties," said a statement from the office of the Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani.

The statement came a day after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi met in Cairo with a Qatari envoy.

After the meeting with Sheikh Mohamed Bin Abdel Rahman Al Thani, Sisi's office issued a statement saying: "Egypt looks forward to a new era that ends past disagreements."

In its statement Sunday, Qatar thanked Saudi Arabia for its mediation in a diplomatic crisis that had seen several Gulf states pull their ambassadors from Doha.

Saudi, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain severed ties following Qatar's support for the Muslim Brotherhood after the ouster of Islamist Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi in July last year.

Qatar had repeatedly denounced Morsi's removal, and still provides shelter for many Brotherhood leaders, especially those who have been forced to flee a crackdown in Egypt.

According to the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al Awsat, Sisi and Thani are expected in Riyadh soon for a summit hosted by Saudi King Abdullah.

TUNIS — Tunisian presidential candidate Beji Caid Essebsi claimed victory in Sunday's run-off election, which is seen as the final step to full democracy nearly four years after an uprising ousted autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Preliminary results were still to be released by election authorities, but soon after polls closed, Essebsi said he had beaten rival Moncef Marzouki, the incumbent president.

"I dedicate my victory to the martyrs of Tunisia. I thank Marzouki, and now we should work together without excluding anyone," Essebsi, a former parliament speaker under Ben Ali, told local television.

His campaign manager said "initial indications" showed the 88-year-old Essebsi had won without giving any details, as hundreds of celebrating supporters chanted "Beji President" and waved Tunisia's red and white national flag.

However, rival campaign manager for Marzouki, Adnen Monsar, dismissed the claims saying it was a very close call. "Nothing is confirmed so far," he told reporters.

With a new progressive constitution and a full parliament elected in October, Tunisia is hailed as an example of democratic change for a region still struggling with the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring revolts.

Tunisia avoided the bitter post-revolt divisions troubling Libya and Egypt, but tensions sporadically flare. One gunman was killed overnight and three arrested after they opened fire on a polling station in the central Kairouan governorate, a defence ministry official said.

Essebsi took 39 per cent of votes in the first round ballot in November with Marzouki winning 33 per cent.

As front runner, Essebsi dismissed critics who said victory for him would mark a return of the old regime stalwarts. He argued that he was the technocrat Tunisia needed following three messy years of an Islamist-led coalition government.

Marzouki, 69, is a former activist who once sought refuge in France during the Ben Ali era. He painted an Essebsi presidency as a setback for the “Jasmine Revolution” that forced the former leader to flee into exile.

“We need a president who looks after the people and is not interested only in power,” said Ibrahim Ktiti, an electrician who voted in the poor Ettadhamen neighbourhood of Tunis. “The old regime won’t make it back. Essebsi never excused himself for all the time he was with Ben Ali.”

Yet many Tunisians tie Marzouki’s own presidency to the Islamist party’s government and the mistakes opponents said it made in controlling the influence of hardline Islamists in one of the Arab world’s most secular countries.

Compromise has been important in Tunisian politics and Essebsi’s Nidaa Tounes Party reached a deal with the Islamist Ennahda Party to overcome a crisis triggered by the murder of two secular leaders last year.

Ennahda stepped down at the start of this year to make way for a technocrat transitional Cabinet until elections. But the Islamists remain a powerful force after winning the second largest number of seats in the new parliament.

Essebsi appeals to the more secular, liberal sections of Tunisian society, while analysts predicted that Marzouki would draw on support from more conservative rural areas, and from some members of Ennahda, which did not field a candidate.

The presidency post holds only limited powers over national defence and foreign policy. The parliament, led by Nidaa Tounes which won the most seats, will be key to selecting a prime minister to lead the government.

MOUNT SINJAR, Iraq — Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani hailed advances by peshmerga fighters against the Islamic State group Sunday as they battled the jihadists for a northern town with the backing of US-led strikes.

Thousands of the autonomous Kurdish region's peshmerga launched a major operation on Wednesday which broke the second IS siege this year of Mount Sinjar.

The Kurdish offensive threatens the links between the city of Mosul, the main IS stronghold in Iraq, and territory the militants control in neighbouring Syria.

"During the past 48 hours, the peshmerga opened two main routes to Mount Sinjar," Barzani said during a visit to Mount Sinjar, adding: "We did not expect to achieve all these victories."

In addition to breaking through to the mountain, "a large part of the centre of the town of Sinjar was also liberated," he said of the district's main settlement to the south.

The Kurdish regional president said the peshmerga might join an operation to retake Mosul itself.

"We will take part if the Iraqi government asks us, and of course we will have our conditions," he said, without specifying what these might be.

The Kurdistan Regional Security Council said on Sunday that peshmerga forces were advancing inside the town of Sinjar, "engaging and suppressing (IS) positions" with the support of air strikes by international forces.

Sweeping offensive 

Explosives disposal teams also cleared key roads north of Mount Sinjar, it said.

The US-led coalition said its forces launched 13 air strikes against IS in northern and western Iraq on Sunday, including four near Sinjar.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor reported "at least 12" coalition air strikes on IS positions north of Syria's second city Aleppo on Sunday.

IS spearheaded a sweeping offensive that has overrun much of Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland since June, presenting both an opportunity for territorial expansion and an existential threat to the country's Kurdish region.

Multiple Iraqi divisions collapsed in the early days of the militant advance, clearing the way for the Kurds to take control of a swathe of disputed northern territory that they have long wanted to incorporate into their autonomous region over Baghdad's objections.

But after pushing south towards Baghdad, IS then turned its attention to the Kurds, forcing them back towards their regional capital Erbil in a move that helped spark US air strikes against the jihadists.

Backed by the raids, which are now being carried out by a coalition of countries, Kurdish forces have clawed back significant ground from IS.

The conflict seems set to redraw the internal boundaries of Iraq in favour of broader Kurdish control in the north.

Trapped Yazidis 

In his remarks on Mount Sinjar, Barzani said: “We will not leave an inch of the land of Kurdistan for [IS], and we will strike [IS] in any place it is located.”

That siege was broken and many of the civilians evacuated, but others stayed behind and were again besieged by the jihadists in October.

While both Kurdish and federal forces have made gains against IS, the group remains a potent threat, holding extensive territory in Iraq and eastern Syria.

IS began a major assault on Saturday on the strategic town of Baiji south of Mosul, sparking fighting that lasted into Sunday.

The province’s governor and an army officer said the attack was repulsed, while two other officers said that pro-government forces lost ground.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi meanwhile travelled to Kuwait on Sunday for talks on the security situation among other issues, his office said.

The visit came just days after the UN said Iraq could delay payment of a final $4.6 billion in war reparations for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait due to the “extraordinarily difficult security circumstances”.

CAIRO — An Egyptian court has jailed a Suez Canal shipping services manager for 10 years on charges of spying for Israel about naval movements through the strategic waterway, state media reported.

The court in the canal City of Port Said also handed down life sentences in absentia to two Israelis it found guilty of being the Egyptian's handlers, the official MENA news agency reported late Saturday.

The court found that Mohamed Ali Abdel Baki had passed on information damaging to national security about the movements of Egyptian and foreign warships, particularly Iranian ones.

Abdel Baki had also divulged detailed information to his handlers about Port Said and its management, the court heard.

He had first made contact with the Israeli security services over the Internet in 2011 and met the two Israelis convicted of being his handlers at the embassy in Bangkok the following year.

Prosecutors charged that in addition to spying for Israel, Abdel Baki had also offered to provide similar information about naval movements and deployments to its regional foes Iran, Syria and Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

In February 2011, two Iranian warships entered the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal for the first time since the Islamic revolution of 1979, prompting Israel to put its navy on high alert.

Iranian warships made a similar deployment through the canal in February 2012, sailing past the coast of Israel and making a port call in Latakia in allied Syria before returning to Iran.

TRIPOLI — Libya's Islamist-backed rival government called Sunday for diplomats and foreign firms to return to Tripoli, pledging to protect them despite an attack on the empty home of the Swiss ambassador.

"We call on diplomatic missions and foreign firms to return to Tripoli," the government of self-declared prime minister Omar Al Hassi said in a statement.

"Foreigners who reside in Libya enjoy the same protection the state offers to its citizens," it said.

On Friday gunmen broke into the residence of the Swiss ambassador in Tripoli and looted the uninhabited house, before chased away by security forces.

Three years after dictator Muammar Qadhafi was toppled and killed in a NATO-backed revolt, Libya is awash with weapons and powerful militias, and run by rival governments and parliaments.

Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn), a coalition of Islamist militias, seized Tripoli in August after weeks of deadly fighting with a nationalist group.

The violence triggered an exodus of foreigners from the Libyan capital and prompted the closure of several embassies, with many relocating to neighbouring countries.

Hassi's government was installed at the end of August by the militias.

It is jostling for power with the internationally backed government of Prime Minister Abdullah Al Thani, formed after parliamentary elections in June.

After Tripoli fell to the Islamists, the Thani government and the parliament moved to the remote east of the country.

In November, two car bombs struck near the shuttered Egyptian and United Arab Emirates in Tripoli, where Italy is one of the few countries to keep an embassy open.

CAIRO — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi on Sunday removed the powerful general intelligence chief appointed just days after the ouster of Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi in July last year.

General Mohamed Farid El Tohamy was replaced by his deputy General Khaled Mahmoud Fuad Fawzy, Sisi's office said in a statement, without specifying why.

"The president issued an order sending General Tohamy, the head of general intelligence, into retirement," it said, adding that he had been given a medal for his work.

General Fawzy takes charge of Egypt's intelligence operations from Sunday.

Former army general Sameh Seif Al Yazal, an expert on military strategy who has close ties with the security services, told AFP that Tohamy, 67, had been unwell and had "spent the last two months in hospital".

Tohamy was appointed spy chief after the ouster of Morsi on July 3, 2013.

Then army chief Sisi got rid of Morsi after mass street protests against the Islamist president's turbulent one-year rule.

A subsequent government crackdown targeting Morsi supporters has left hundreds dead, thousands jailed and dozens sentenced to death in mass trials which the United Nations says are "unprecedented in recent history".

Most of the estimated 1,400 dead were killed when police stormed two pro-Morsi camps in Cairo in August last year.

RAFAH — Around 630 Palestinians left Gaza and entered the Egyptian Sinai through the Rafah crossing on Sunday after Cairo authorised a temporary reopening of the border, a Palestinian official said.

It was only the second time in two months that Egypt had opened the Rafah terminal.

On Saturday, an Egyptian official confirmed to AFP that the crossing would be open on Sunday and Monday.

All of those crossing were either seeking medical treatment or were holders of a permit to stay overseas, according to Maher Abu Sabha, director of border crossings in the Gaza Strip.

The southern Rafah crossing is Gaza's only gateway to the world not controlled by Israel.

An AFP correspondent at the scene said hundreds of people had gathered in front of the terminal.

"At around midday [1000 GMT], three buses carrying around 200 people left Gaza through the Rafah terminal and entered Egypt," Abu Sabha said.

On Monday, Palestinians studying abroad would be permitted to enter Egypt, he said.

Meanwhile Egyptian state media reported that Cairo deported 52 Palestinians to Gaza through Rafah on Sunday.

MENA news agency, quoting an unnamed official at the border, said 30 of the deportees had been rounded up for living illegally in Egypt, while the others had tried to enter without a visa.

After investigating their cases the security services decided to send them back to Gaza, the official said.

Cairo closed the crossing on October 25, the day after a deadly suicide attack killed 30 soldiers in north Sinai.

The closure has prevented thousands of Gazans from accessing medical treatment or higher education in Egypt and beyond, and also prevented some 3,500 Palestinians from returning home, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

On Saturday, 378 Gaza residents were finally able to return to the enclave through Rafah, a Palestinian statement said.

During the first six months of the year, when the crossing was closed for a total of 22 days, an average of 6,400 people crossed each month, the UN said.