Five Al- Qaida suspects were killed in artillery shelling by Yemen's army in the country's restive southern city of Zinjibar, officials said on Saturday.

"The army's 25th Mechanized Brigade fired artillery shells late Friday at an area in Zinjibar's east killing five Al- Qaida militants," an army official told AFP.

More than two million Muslims began massing Saturday on Saudi Arabia's Mount Arafat and its surrounding plain, marking the peak day of the largest annual pilgrimage.

Swarms of pilgrims who had spent the night in Mina, some 10 kilometers (six miles) northwest of Arafat surged through the roads leading to the mountain after midnight.

Damascus on Saturday strongly condemned Washington after the U.S. State Department advised Syrians against surrendering following an amnesty for those who give up weapons.

"The American administration disclosed again its blatant interference in Syria's internal affairs, and its policy which supports killing, in addition to its funding of the terrorist groups in Syria," SANA state news agency said citing a foreign ministry official.

Members of the U.N. Human Rights Council said Friday they seek to "shine a spotlight" on violations in Syria and will press ahead with investigations of the regime whether or not its monitors are allowed into the country.

A U.N. human rights fact-finding mission was barred entry to the violence-plagued state in August, and a subsequent U.N.-backed commission of inquiry has also been refused access, with its members instead traveling to border areas in neighboring countries to monitor abuses from there.

Bahraini authorities violently dispersed thousands of protesters who marched towards Manama's center on Friday after the funeral of a key opposition figure's father who allegedly died after he was beaten by police, an opposition ex-MP said.

"Security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets, and used police cars to try to run over protesters who marched in thousands towards Pearl Square," epicenter of month-long anti-regime protests in the spring, after the funeral of 70-year-old Ali Hassan al-Dehi, Matar Matar told Agence France Presse.

Libya's National Transitional Council has pledged to continue with the previous regime's program of destroying its chemical weapons stockpiles, an international monitoring group said Friday.

"The new authorities inherited the obligations of the old regime as a state party to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons," the organization’s spokesman Michael Luhan said at its headquarters in The Hague.

The Israeli navy on Friday intercepted two international ships carrying pro-Palestinian activists who were trying to break the blockade on Gaza, a military statement said.

"A short while ago, Israel navy soldiers boarded the vessels which were en route to the Gaza Strip, attempting to break the maritime security blockade that is in place in accordance with international law," it said.

France said Friday that Syria was breaking its commitments to an Arab League peace plan by continuing a deadly crackdown on protesters and cast doubt on President Bashar al-Assad's dedication to the deal.

"The continuing repression can only strengthen the international community's doubts about the Syrian regime's sincerity to implement the Arab League peace plan," the French foreign ministry's deputy spokesman, Romain Nadal, told journalists.

Protesters on Friday held massive demonstrations in Yemen's capital Sanaa and in Taez as they buried 19 people killed by government forces over the past two days in both cities.

A smaller number of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's loyalists staged a counter rally on the capital's Sabiin Avenue in support of the embattled leader, witnesses said.

France confirmed Friday that it would abstain in a Security Council vote on full Palestinian membership of the United Nations, deputy foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said.

"France reiterates its consistent proposal to envisage for Palestine, at this stage, the status of non-member observer state through a U.N. General Assembly vote that would be another step towards admission," Nadal said.