By Nate Raymond and Jonathan Stempel

BOSTON, March 20 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's administration escalated its attacks on Harvard University on Friday, as it sued the Ivy League school to recover billions of dollars for allegedly failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students.

Harvard has been a central focus of the president's campaign to force changes at major U.S. universities, which Trump has derided for alleged antisemitic and "radical left" ideologies, by threatening to withhold or take back federal funding.

WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that there are no leaders left in Iran to talk to about the war, with military strikes continuing to target Iranian officials.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery and Steve Holland; Editing by Caitlin Webber)

(Note: This story contains graphic details in paragraphs 1, 3 and 14)

By Ali Sawafta and Pesha Magid

HUMSAH, West Bank, March 20 (Reuters) - Israeli settlers sexually assaulted a Palestinian man - tying his genitalia with zip ties and parading him naked in front of his family - during a mid-March attack, according to the victim and eyewitnesses.

By John Irish, Marc Leras and Gianluca Lo Nostro

PARIS, March 20 (Reuters) - The French Navy seized an oil tanker on Friday in the Western Mediterranean that President Emmanuel Macron said belonged to Russia's shadow fleet, a network of vessels that enables Moscow to export oil despite Western sanctions.

Local officials told Reuters earlier on Friday that the navy had boarded a Mozambique-flagged oil tanker named Deyna that was suspected of flying a false flag. The ship had been sailing from the Russian port of Murmansk.

BRUSSELS, March 20 (Reuters) - NATO said it was "adjusting" the posture of its mission in Iraq, in response to a media report that the alliance had started to withdraw personnel from the country due to the military conflicts in the Middle East.

"We can confirm that we are adjusting our posture in the context of NATO Mission Iraq. We are working in close coordination with Allies and partners," NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said in an email to Reuters.

March 20 (Reuters) - Iran's new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei will issue a message within minutes marking the start of Persian New Year, state media reported on Friday.

(Reporting by Enas Alashray; Editing by Louise Heavens)

BEIRUT/SIDON, Lebanon, March 20 (Reuters) - For Lebanese Muslims, there was little to celebrate on Friday during Eid al-Fitr as a displacement crisis prompted by Israeli strikes and fears for the future cast a dark shadow over the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Normally a joyous festival, Eid al-Fitr this year has been dampened by fallout from the war raging between Israel and Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which dragged Lebanon into the regional conflict earlier this month.

A French jihadist was sentenced to life in jail on Friday for involvement in Islamic State group atrocities against the Yazidi minority in Iraq and Syria, the first such case in France.

Sabri Essid, thought to have been killed in 2018, was found guilty in absentia by a Paris court of crimes against humanity and complicity in the crimes, committed between 2014 and 2016 when the jihadists occupied parts of northern Syria and Iraq.

"Sabri Essid took part in the genocide perpetrated by Islamic State," presiding judge Marc Sommerer told the court.

WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - The United States military is deploying thousands of additional Marines and Sailors to the Middle East, three U.S. officials told Reuters on Friday.

One of the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the USS Boxer, along with the Marie Expeditionary Unit aboard, were departing the West Coast of the United States about 3 weeks ahead of schedule.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump assailed NATO allies on Friday over their lack of support for the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, calling the longtime U.S. allies "cowards."

"Without the U.S.A., NATO IS A PAPER TIGER!" Trump said in a social media post. "COWARDS, and we will REMEMBER!"

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; editing by Michelle Nichols)