Advocacy group Human Rights Watch on Tuesday said it had urged the European Union to freeze the assets of the Syrian National Oil Company, Syrian National Gas Company, and the Central Bank of Syria until Damascus "ends gross human rights abuses against its citizens."

"Syria’s authorities are still killing their own people despite multiple efforts by other countries, including former allies, to make them stop," said Lotte Leicht, EU director at the New York-based HRW.

Heavy machine-gun fire reverberated Tuesday across the Syrian Mediterranean port of Latakia, which is engulfed by a major military offensive, activists said.

"The heavy machine gun-fire and bullets were intense in areas of Latakia, Ramel, Masbah al-Shaab and Ain Tamra for more than three hours," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Israel has arrested the Palestinian head of al-Jazeera's Kabul bureau as he tried to leave the West Bank after visiting his family, the television channel's Jerusalem bureau chief told Agence France Presse on Tuesday.

Walid al-Omary said Samer Allawi was detained on August 10 as he tried to cross to Jordan through the Israeli-controlled Allenby crossing.

An Iraqi technical delegation has held talks in Kuwait over a seaport Baghdad claims would strangle its narrow shipping lanes in the Gulf, the Kuwaiti foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

The Kuwaiti side presented illustrations and studies on Mubarak al-Kabir port and its impact on shipping in Khour Abdullah waterway, said an official quoted by the KUNA news agency.

Twenty three tribesmen were killed in overnight clashes with troops loyal to embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Arhab, northeast of the capital, a tribal source said Tuesday.

"Twenty three of our fighters were killed in fierce overnight clashes with the Republican Guard," said the source, adding that the worst fighting was concentrated in the area of Sheheb Arhab.

Iran sees no justification for any Western intervention in the "internal affair" of its regional Arab ally Syria, foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said on Tuesday.

"The events in Syria are its internal affair and there is no justification for any foreign intervention as it can only create many problems," Mehmanparast said during his weekly press briefing.

Israel is trying to dissuade a U.S. senator from pushing a bill that would suspend U.S. assistance to three of its elite army units suspected of human rights abuses, Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Tuesday.

The bill is being promoted by U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, who wants to see funding withheld from the three units, one of which was involved in the deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in 2010, which left nine Turkish nationals dead.

A commission probing Bahrain's crackdown on Shiite-led protests said Tuesday it has closed its office after being stormed by people angered by media claims it has cleared authorities of crimes against humanity.

The Bahrain Commission of Inquiry said in an emailed statement that it will continue its investigation from outside the office, insisting that claims in the media were unfounded.

Morocco said Tuesday it will hold early parliamentary elections on November 25, as the Arab world's longest-serving monarchy pursues reforms in response to protests inspired by the Arab Spring.

The elections "will take place on Friday, November 25 following an agreement with the political parties," Interior Minister Taieb Cherkaoui was quoted as saying by Moroccan news agency MAP.

One Palestinian was killed and seven wounded in at least four overnight Israeli air strikes across the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics said on Tuesday.

The Israeli military said its aircraft had targeted four areas in the Gaza Strip in response to the firing of a Grad rocket from the Palestinian territory into southern Israel.