Six suspected al-Qaida gunmen have been killed in the south Yemen province of Abyan in an air raid by government forces, a local official and a witness said on Tuesday.

The official said the six militants were killed on Monday as Yemeni forces raided several al-Qaida posts in the area of Arkub, which was overrun Sunday by armed men suspected of belonging to the jihadist network.

Tripoli is "under control" of the regime, a son of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi claimed early Tuesday, after rebels said they had taken most of the capital and gunfire rattled the port city.

Seif al-Islam, wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, met with an Agence France Presse correspondent and two other journalists, after ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said rebel forces had arrested him.

The Pentagon believes Libya's Moammar Gadhafi has not fled the country, a military spokesman said Monday, as rebel forces swept into the Libyan capital.

It's "probably fair to say that we believe he's still in the country," spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan told reporters.

Syrian authorities ordered a U.N. team to leave the city of Homs on Monday after protests erupted there, a U.N. spokesman said.

Three people were shot dead when security forces opened fire on a rally in Homs on Monday, according to activists.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must step down because he is as "irrelevant" to the future of his country as Moammar Gadhafi is in Libya, Britain's deputy prime minister said Monday.

With Gadhafi's regime apparently in its final throes as rebel fighters move into Tripoli, Nick Clegg said the situation in Syria was "less encouraging".

Libyan insurgents on Monday seized control of the state broadcaster in the capital Tripoli, rebel military spokesman Mohammed Zawiwa told Agence France Presse.

"All the television stations controlled by the state have stopped transmitting (in Tripoli). Our fighters have gone in and taken control of the facilities," Zawiwa said.

Libya's rebel government gained more Arab recognition on Monday, a day after its fighters overran the heart of the capital in their push to take full control from regime loyalists and end a six-month uprising against Moammar Kadhafi's 42-year rule.

Egypt, Libya's eastern neighbor, recognized the council as the legitimate government after holding back so far on supporting the rebels, who started their uprising days after an Egyptian revolt ended president Hosni Mubarak's three decade rule.

Syrian authorities released leading human rights activist Abdul Karim Rihawi on Monday after detaining him 11 days ago, his lawyer said.

"The authorities released Abdul Karim Rihawi without bringing any charges against him," lawyer Khalil Maatouq said.

Libyan rebel chief Mustafa Abdul Jalil on Monday hailed the end of the four-decade "Gadhafi era," after his fighters took control of most of Tripoli.

But Abdul Jalil also warned that he could quit as head of the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) if he loses control of the revolution, amid possible revenge acts by insurgents.

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi declared on Monday his "full solidarity" with the Libyan rebel government as its fighters closed in on Moammar Ghadafi's Tripoli compound.

Arabi, in a statement expressed "his full solidarity with the ongoing efforts by the National Transitional Council" and "wished success for the council in leading a new era and preserving Libya's regional integrity and its sovereignty and independence."