More than 6,400 Syrian refugees have fled to Jordan's Zaatari camp in the past 24 hours, bringing to over 30,000 the number of arrivals since the start of the month, the U.N. refugee agency said.

"Jordan has experienced a record number of refugees crossing," UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told reporters in Geneva, noting that December's influx totaled 16,413.

Syria's air force launched new raids on rebel-held towns east of Damascus on Friday, after clashes raged on the edges of a Palestinian refugee camp in the capital, a watchdog said.

The army pounded opposition-held areas of battered Homs in central Syria, as it stepped up a campaign to reclaim areas of "the capital of the revolution," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Soldiers fired on an anti-government rally west of Baghdad on Friday, killing six demonstrators, the first deaths in weeks of increasingly angry protests calling for Iraq's premier to quit.

The shootings came as tens of thousands rallied in majority Sunni areas of the country, railing against alleged targeting of their minority community by the Shiite-led authorities, while in a cross-sectarian show of support, Shiite clerics called on the government to heed their demands.

Senator John Kerry, on track to become the next U.S. secretary of state, is to visit Jerusalem and Ramallah in February to examine ways of reviving the peace process, an Israeli daily reported on Friday.

Quoting senior Israeli officials, the left-leaning Haaretz said Kerry was interested in visiting as soon as possible, even before a new Israeli government is appointed following Tuesday's general election.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has appealed for calm after seven people died in clashes between police and protesters on the second anniversary of the revolt that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

As troops were deployed in the flashpoint city of Suez, Morsi, in a message posted on his Twitter account Friday, urged "citizens to adhere to the values of the revolution, express opinions freely and peacefully and renounce violence".

The authorities in Yemen have seized a shipment of assault rifles at the southern port of Aden that originated from Turkey, the second in the same month, state media reported on Friday.

Among the weapons discovered in a container were "115 T14 Turkish-made assault rifles," state news agency Saba quoted Aden customs chief Mohammed Zumam as saying.

Israeli officials said Thursday that military action against Iran needed to stay on the table, as former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger warned of a crisis over Tehran's nuclear ambitions in the "very foreseeable future".

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Israeli President Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the threat of military action was vital to efforts against Iran's nuclear program.

Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Australia have all urged their citizens to leave the Libyan city of Benghazi due to a "specific, imminent threat to Westerners,” linked to French action in Mali.

Britain's warning Thursday sparked an angry response from Libya's government, which said there was "no new intelligence" to justify such concerns in the eastern city.

Yemen said on Thursday that the co-founder and second-in-command of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Saudi national Saeed al-Shehri, had died.

The Supreme National Security Committee said Shehri had succumbed to wounds received in a counter-terrorism operation in the northern Saada province on November 28.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon made a fresh appeal to members of the Security Council on Thursday to overcome their divisions and find a solution to the bloody civil war in Syria.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Ban said it would be an "abdication" of the world body's responsibilities if it fails to unify over the crisis that has claimed more than 60,000 lives.