Germany's foreign minister warned on Thursday that delivering weapons to Syria's rebels could result in an arms race in the region and stressed the EU would send only "defensive" equipment.

In an interview with the Tagesspiegel daily, Guido Westerwelle said the situation in Syria was "shocking" and said Berlin would do everything it could contribute to a political solution "despite all the difficulties."

Syrian fighter jets on Thursday pounded Raqa, a day after rebels took full control of the northern city, a watchdog said, raising concern for the fate of loyalists who surrendered.

The flag of the Islamist Al-Nusra Front, which led the rebel assault on Raqa, flew on the building housing the city's former feared military intelligence branch, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

An al-Qaida militant was killed Thursday when a roadside bomb he was trying to plant at a central market in the southern town of Loder exploded, a security official told Agence France Presse.

Witnesses in the town where a suspected al-Qaida suicide bomber killed 12 pro-government militiamen earlier this week said the militant's body was torn to pieces in the blast.

The Philippines on Thursday strongly condemned the hostage-taking of 21 Filipino U.N. peacekeepers by Syrian rebels in the Golan Heights ceasefire zone and demanded their immediate release.

The soldiers, part of a 300-strong Filipino peacekeeping unit, were detained at a rebel observation point on Wednesday by gunmen who said the troops would be held until Syrian regime forces pulled back from a Golan village.

Sweden on Wednesday became the ninth European country to upgrade the status of a Palestinian representative office to that of an embassy.

Parliament voted by an overwhelming majority to ratify a June 28 agreement between Stockholm and Ramallah on upgrading the Palestinian Authority's mission here.

The Arab League said on Wednesday it is prepared to hand Syria's seat in the organisation to the opposition battling to oust President Bashar Assad if it sets up an executive body, as Lebanon expressed that it is a "dangerous step".

The League, in a resolution adopted at a meeting of foreign ministers in Cairo, called for the opposition National Coalition "to form an executive body to take up Syria's seat" and attend its next summit, in Doha on March 26-27.

Armed fighters on Wednesday detained about 20 U.N. peacekeepers in the Golan Heights between Syria and Israel, urging the U.N. to call in a statement for their immediate release.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman said the peacekeepers were from the Philippines.

A court in Bahrain on Wednesday condemned a protester accused of involvement in a bomb attack on police in a Shiite village to 15 years in prison, the official BNA news agency reported.

It quoted a judiciary source as saying that the High Criminal Court in Manama handed down the sentence to the unidentified defendant on charges that included "attempted murder of members of the security forces."

President Bashar Assad on Wednesday mourned the death of Venezuela's leader Hugo Chavez as a "great loss" for himself and the Syrian people.

"The demise of this unique leader is as much a great loss for me personally and the Syrian people as it is for the people of Venezuela," Assad said in a statement broadcast on state television.

Britain will provide body armor and armored vehicles to the rebels battling forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad, Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday.

Hague said the non-lethal military aid, worth $20 million (15.4 million euros), was a "necessary, proportionate and lawful response" to a situation of "extreme" humanitarian suffering.