In Iraq's northern Kurdistan region, women perform a traditional dance, their long dresses spinning, gold tassels and heavy necklaces catching the firelight, as smaller crowds than usual celebrate Nowruz, overshadowed by the Middle East conflict.

Among them were Iranian Kurds Sirwa Mustafazada and Kwestan Aminpana, who fled their home country as a result of their activism in 2018.

After three weeks of war, they share the same yearning: "Next year we will be back."

Iranians are managing to get online during the current war with the US and Israel despite drastic censorship and frequent blackouts, throwing the spotlight on to providers of tools such as VPNs (virtual private networks).

AFP asked Adam Fisk, head of US-based nonprofit Lantern, which offers an advanced VPN, how his technology and similar apps can get around such heavy-handed blocking.

Question: How does Iran's internet blocking work?

March 20 (Reuters) - Iranian missiles and drones have continued to strike crucial energy facilities and other targets in Gulf countries and the wider Middle East nearly three weeks into the war.

Neutralising Iran's missile and drone capabilities is a crucial war aim for both the U.S. and Israel, which launched the conflict on February 28, but that may prove very difficult.

Here's why:

HOW BIG IS IRAN'S MISSILE AND DRONE STOCKPILE?

BRUSSELS, March 20 (Reuters) - NATO has withdrawn all of its troops from an advisory missionin Iraq, the military alliance said on Friday, as the repercussions of the Iran war spread across the Middle East.

"I would like to thank the Republic of Iraq and all the Allies who assisted in the safe relocation of NATO personnel from Iraq," U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said in a statement.

March 20 (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei released a message on Friday marking the start of Persian New Year which he named the year of a "resistance economy under national unity and national security."

In the statement, released on his Telegram channel, Khamenei said that attacks against Turkey and Oman were not carried out by Iran or its allied forces.

(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi; Writing by Enas Alashray; Editing by William Maclean)

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.