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)

Just a trickle of cargo ships and tankers -- most of them Iranian -- have made it through the Strait of Hormuz since Iranian forces effectively blocked the crucial trade route in the Middle East war.

Here are facts and figures about vessels that have passed through the 167-kilometre (104-mile) long strait since the war broke out with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.

- 95% shipping drop -

From March 1 to 1600 GMT on March 23, commodities carriers made just 144 crossings, according to analytics firm Kpler -- a 95 percent decrease from peacetime.

US President Donald Trump on Friday ruled out reaching a ceasefire agreement with Iran, as more Marines headed to the Middle East in a possible sign of a coming ground operation.

Trump insisted Washington had the upper hand in the three-week-old war, despite Iran effectively blockading the Strait of Hormuz in a move that has sent global oil prices skyrocketing.

"I think we have won," Trump told journalists at the White House alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

KYIV, March 20 (Reuters) - Kyiv has deployed 228 specialists to help Middle Eastern countries with drone defence, and is working with Middle Eastern leaders to sign "serious agreements," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday.

Zelenskiy also told reporters that Ukrainian and U.S. working groups would continue work on bilateral documents between Kyiv and Washington and discuss a wide-ranging drone deal at a meeting in the U.S. at the weekend.

(Reporting by Olena Harmash, writing by Max Hunder; Editing by Aidan Lewis)

PRAGUE, March 20 (Reuters) - Czech investigators are probing an overnight fire at an industrial complex as potentially being a deliberate attack, officials said on Friday, following media reports that a group protesting against Israeli weapons claimed responsibility.

Firefighters said on X that they had responded to a fire at a storage hall in a complex in Pardubice, 120 km (75 miles) east of Prague. No one was injured in the fire, which spread to another building.