Jan 4 (Reuters) - Flights across Greece were grounded on Sunday after a collapse of radio frequencies crippled air traffic communication, stranding thousands of travellers and bringing airport operations to a halt.

There was little clarity on what caused the disruption, which began early Sunday and quickly escalated. Some overflights across Greek and regional airspace were still being serviced, but restrictions were imposed on airport operations for safety reasons, Greece's civil aviation authority said.

By Elwely Elwelly

DUBAI, Jan 4 (Reuters) - At least 16 people have been killed during a week of unrest in Iran, rights groups said on Sunday, as protests over soaring inflation spread across the country prompting violent clashes between demonstrators and security forces.

Deaths and arrests have been reported through the week both by state media and rights groups, though the numbers have differed. Reuters has not been able to verify the figures independently.

ZURICH, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Teenagers as young as 14 and 15 years old were among those who died in the bar fire on New Year's Eve that killed 40 people in Switzerland, police said on Sunday.

Police in Valais said they had identified 16 more of those who died in the blaze in Crans-Montana, one of the worst disasters in recent Swiss history.

Those newly identified included 10 Swiss nationals, two Italians, one person with Italian-Emirati citizenship, one Romanian, one person from France and one from Turkey, Valais police said. No names were given.

CAIRO, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Israeli forces shot and killed at least three Palestinians in separate incidents in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis on Sunday, local health authorities said.

Medics reported that the dead included a 15‑year‑old boy, a fisherman killed outside areas still occupied by Israel in the enclave, and a third man who was shot and killed east of the city in areas under Israeli control.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the reported incidents.

Britain and France on Sunday said they had carried out joint strikes on the Islamic State group in Syria to prevent the Islamist extremists resurging.

France said it was part of Operation Inherent Resolve, a US-led international offensive against IS in Iraq, Syria and also Libya.

The British Ministry of Defence said it cooperated with France on Saturday night to strike an underground facility in Syria that had likely been used by the Islamic State group to store weapons.

By Gram Slattery

PALM BEACH, Florida, Jan 3 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump capped the holidays with an unprecedented strike on Venezuela, overseeing a surprise snatch-and-grab operation early on Saturday targeted at Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

The dramatic mission punctuated a winter sojourn to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, filled with an unusual mix of activities that have become oddly typical for the unconventional president.

At least four people were killed in western Iran on Saturday in clashes between protesters and security forces, two rights groups said, accusing Revolutionary Guards of opening fire on demonstrators.

Protests carried on in several cities nationwide throughout Saturday, the seventh day of a movement sparked by anger over the rising cost of living in the Islamic republic.

The protests are the most significant in Iran since a 2022-2023 movement that authorities quelled with a crackdown that left hundreds dead and thousands arrested, according to activists.

When paramilitary fighters closed in on the Sudanese border town and oil field of Heglig, paraplegic Dowa Hamed could only cling to her husband's back as they fled, "like a child", she told AFP.

Now, the 25-year-old mother of five -- paralysed from the waist down -- lies shell-shocked on a cot in the Abu al-Naga displacement camp, a dusty transit centre just outside the eastern city of Gedaref, nearly 800 kilometres (500 miles) from home.

DUBAI, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed not to yield after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to come to the aid of protesters, as rights groups reported a sharp rise in arrests following days of unrest sparked by soaring inflation.

Speaking in a recorded appearance on television on Saturday, Khamenei said the Islamic Republic "will not yield to the enemy" and said rioters should be "put in their place".

Saudi-backed troops on Saturday retook the resource-rich Yemeni province of Hadramawt, Yemen's presidency said, after confrontations between forces backed by Riyadh and Abu Dhabi deepened a rift between the two Gulf allies.

The Saudis and Emiratis have long supported rival factions in Yemen's fractious government, and a December offensive by the UAE-backed secessionist Southern Transitional Council (STC) to capture Hadramawt had angered Riyadh and left the oil-rich regional powers on a collision course.