Iran on Tuesday offered to use its good ties with Damascus and Ankara to help resolve the row between the two countries over Syria's downing of a Turkish warplane.

Syria's shooting down of the jet last Friday was "a very sensitive issue" that also concerns Tehran, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said, just ahead of an emergency NATO meeting on the incident.

Rebel forces and Syrian army units engaged in deadly combat around elite Republican Guard posts in the suburbs of Damascus on Tuesday, as 86 people were killed across the country, a monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll consisted of 50 civilians, 32 soldiers and four rebels.

The Arab Spring uprisings have given al-Qaida new arenas in which to rebuild, increasing the chances of home-grown terrorist attacks in Britain, the head of its domestic intelligence warned Monday.

Instability in the region had created "a permissive environment for al-Qaida", Jonathan Evans, director general of MI5 said in a lecture in London on Monday.

Turkey has told the U.N. Security Council that Syria's downing of one of its fighter jets poses a "serious threat to peace and security” after Damascus insisted the plane had violated its airspace.

Turkey, in a letter to the United Nations Security Council and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, said Monday its plane had gone down in international airspace.

The United States said Monday that the U.N. Security Council has been a "colossal failure" in protecting Syrian civilians and made a new demand for sanctions against President Bashar Assad.

The council, which is divided on how to end the conflict, "continues to stand by, rather than to stand up," Susan Rice, U.S. envoy to the United Nations, told the 15-nation body.

Syria insisted on Monday that a Turkish warplane shot down by its forces violated its airspace, but Ankara hit back saying it was a "hostile act of the highest order" ahead of NATO emergency talks.

The incident has reignited concern over the Syria conflict, with the European Union condemning the Damascus regime and slapping new sanctions against it while also warning of the dangers of military escalation.

A car bomb south of Baghdad killed eight people and wounded 32 on Monday, while a roadside bomb north of the capital killed four people and wounded seven, security and medical sources said.

The car bomb exploded at about 7:45 pm (1645 GMT) near a football field in Hilla, 95 kilometers (60 miles) south of Baghdad, killing eight people and wounding 32, police Second Lieutenant Ali Jassem and doctor Saad al-Khafaji of Hilla hospital said.

A Russian ship that tried to deliver repaired attack helicopters to Syria raised Russia's tricolor flag on Monday as it awaited orders in a naval port to possibly make a second attempt, a report said.

The Alaed cargo vessel dropped anchor at the main base of Russia's Northern Fleet near the city of Murmansk on Sunday after being forced to turn back when its British insurer dropped coverage on learning of the mission's true intent.

The Egyptian presidency on Monday denied that president-elect Mohamed Morsi gave an interview to Iran's Fars news agency, in which he reportedly pledged to strengthen ties with the Islamic republic.

"Mr Morsi did not give any interview to Fars and everything that this agency has published is without foundation," a spokesman for the Egyptian presidency told the official news agency MENA.

Iraq's Communications and Media Commission has decided to place restrictions on 39 media outlets including the BBC and Voice of America over alleged license problems, a CMC official said on Monday.

But the Journalism Freedoms Observatory (JFO), an Iraqi media rights organization, said that the CMC had in fact recommended banning 44 news outlets, and called for the move, which it said violated the constitution, to be reversed.