The Arab League will submit to the United Nations a request for recognition of a Palestinian state, Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi said on Thursday in Doha.

The Arab peace initiative committee "has decided to submit a call to the member states of the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state," Arabi told a news conference after a meeting of the committee in the Qatari capital.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has a "suicidal plan" to blow up the capital Tripoli if it is taken by rebels, the Kremlin's special envoy to Libya told a Russian newspaper Thursday.

"The Libyan premier told me: if the rebels seize the city, we will cover it with missiles and blow it up," Kremlin envoy Mikhail Margelov said in an interview with the the Izvestia daily.

Libyan rebels repulsed loyalists who had retaken the desert hamlet of Gualish on Wednesday and chased them to the outskirts of Asabah, shelling the town from nearby hills, an Agence France Presse correspondent said.

The rebel breakthrough came as an insurgent commander downplayed talk of a political solution, saying strongman Moammar Gadhafi refuses to go.

Iran's ambassador to Iraq was slightly injured in an accident at a checkpoint outside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, a security official said on Thursday.

"The incident occurred Tuesday at the main entrance to the Green Zone, when a bomb detector reported a problem but the driver of the vehicle (carrying the ambassador) did not notice and continued on his way. The barrier then hit the vehicle," he said.

Syrian security forces killed two civilians when they opened fire on protesters in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour on Thursday, said Abdel Karim Rihawi of the Syrian League of Human Rights.

At least five more people were wounded in the shooting, Rihawi said.

Israeli jets bombed three sites in Gaza overnight after rockets were fired from the coastal strip, Palestinian officials and the Israeli military said on Thursday.

The Israeli air strikes were the second in as many days, as rocket fire from Gaza into Israel increased suddenly after months of relative quiet.

Britain's Foreign Office summoned the Syrian ambassador on Wednesday over the attacks on the French and U.S. embassies in Damascus earlier this week, it said in a statement.

Sami Khiyami was called in over the raids on Monday by angry mobs apparently sparked by two Western envoys visiting the city of Hama, a flashpoint for protests against President Bashar Assad's regime, it said.

Syrian security forces killed four people as the West ratcheted up pressure for U.N. Security Council action against Damascus and France slammed China and Russia's "indecent" opposition to the move.

The four were killed Wednesday in the Jebel al-Zawiya region, where the army deployed two weeks ago to crush an anti-government revolt, Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Agence France Presse by phone.

Egypt's military rulers have decided to delay the parliamentary elections scheduled for September by up to two months, a military official told state media on Wednesday.

"It has been decided to hold elections for the People's Assembly and the Shoura Council next October or November," MENA state news agency quoted the official as saying, in reference to the lower and upper houses of parliament.

Protesters camped out in Cairo's Tahrir Square vowed Wednesday to pursue their sit-in despite warnings from the ruling military council.

Hundreds spent another night in Tahrir -- the epicenter of protests that toppled President Hosni Mubarak -- where they have been camping out since nationwide rallies on Friday to demand political change.