Barrel bombs dropped from regime helicopters killed at least 71 civilians in Syria's Aleppo province Saturday, after forces loyal to President Bashar Assad retreated from the neighboring northwestern region of Idlib.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "at least 71 civilians were killed, and dozens were wounded, when regime helicopters dropped barrel bombs on the city of Al-Bab and in Al-Shaar in east Aleppo city".

Sixteen people were killed, all but three of them Egyptian policemen, in a collision between a police vehicle and a truck south of Cairo, authorities said on Saturday.

The accident happened on Friday night along a stretch of road in Beni Suef province about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Egyptian capital.

U.N. special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed flew in to Sanaa on Friday for talks with political parties in the war-ravaged country, a rebel-run website reported.

"All Yemeni parties must return to dialogue," he said, quoted by sabanews.net upon his arrival at Sanaa airport.

Yemen's ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh said in an interview broadcast Friday he had rejected "millions of dollars" Saudi Arabia offered him if he stood up to the Shiite rebels.

"They told us 'we'll pay you millions of dollars if you ally with us'" against the Huthis, Saleh told the Beirut-based al-Mayadeen television channel, adding that he rejected the offer.

Yemen's Shiite Huthi rebels have killed the capital's governor in clashes that erupted during an attempt to detain him, his relatives said Friday.

Sanaa governor Abdulghani Jamil and his nephew Nasr Jamil died of wounds suffered in clashes late Thursday between his aides and the Iran-backed militiamen, they said. 

A Syrian Christian fighter has beheaded an Islamic State group (IS) militant to avenge people "executed" by the jihadists in northeastern Syria, a monitor said on Friday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the incident took place on Thursday in Hasakeh province, where IS holds large areas of the countryside.

The Islamic State jihadist group has seized control of the airport in the city of Sirte after forces of a Tripoli-based Libyan government withdrew, a spokesman said Friday.

Mohamed al-Shami, whose government is not recognized by the international community, said its forces pulled out late Thursday from the airport which had "fallen into the hands of the IS organization."

Around 85,000 people have fled Ramadi since the Islamic State group captured the Iraqi provincial capital two weeks ago, the U.N. said Friday, warning that Iraqi authorities were blocking many of the displaced from reaching safety.

The IS jihadists seized the Iraqi city, the capital of Iraq's largest province Anbar, on May 17, marking their most significant victory since mid-2014.

A suicide bomber disguised in women's clothing blew himself up at the entrance to a Saudi Shiite mosque during Friday prayers killing three people, the interior ministry said.

The Islamic State jihadist group claimed the attack, the second in a week.

The Syrian government has abandoned Idlib to concentrate on regions deemed vital for its survival, a security source and monitor said Friday, allowing al-Qaida to seize the province's last regime-held city.

Rebels now control the vast majority of Idlib province after al-Nusra Front -- al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate -- and its allies overran Ariha and surrounding villages on Thursday.