Islamic Jihad on Sunday said it would observe an Egyptian-brokered truce in and around Gaza after a day of violence which killed nine Palestinian militants and an Israeli.

The ceasefire, which came into effect shortly after dawn on Sunday, appeared to be holding, with Israeli police and the military saying the rocket fire had tailed off shortly before 7:00 am (0500 GMT).

Iraq will not be fully able to defend its borders and airspace until at least 2020, a watchdog quoted Iraq's top general as saying in a report on Sunday, months before U.S. troops are to leave.

The Iraqi military's chief of staff, Lieutenant General Babaker Zebari, "estimated that it will take several more years before Iraq can provide for its external defiance without assistance from international partners," said the report from the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR).

Syrian President Bashar Assad has warned that any Western action against his country would cause an "earthquake" that would inflame the region, in an interview published in a British newspaper.

The Sunday Telegraph said Assad warned of "another Afghanistan" if foreign forces intervened in Syria as they did with the Libyan uprising that led to the killing of Moammar Gadhafi.

Twenty Syrian soldiers were killed on Saturday and 53 wounded in clashes with presumed army deserters, activists said.

"Twenty soldiers perished on Saturday and 53 were wounded in clashes between the regular army and presumed deserters in the Baba Amro district of Homs," said a statement from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights received in Nicosia.

A Saudi court on Saturday jailed for 15 years a Saudi woman known as "al-Qaida lady" for being the first woman in the kingdom tried for involvement in violence by the jihadist network, state media said.

"A Saudi woman was sentenced to 15 years in jail starting on the date of her arrest, followed by 15 years of a ban on travelling after her release," SPA state news agency reported.

Members of Oman's recently elected Majlis Al-Shura consultative council elected Saturday their speaker for the first time ever after Sultan Qaboos slightly expanded the body's powers.

Khaled bin Hilal al-Maawali got 50 votes from the 84-member council, whose chief used to be named by the sultan, ONA state news agency.

The White House said the top U.S. and Iraqi national security chiefs discussed the future of their countries' ties on Saturday, two months before all U.S. troops are due to leave Iraq.

During their talks at the White House, U.S. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon and his Iraqi counterpart Falah al-Fayadh "reaffirmed the common vision of a broad, deep strategic partnership between the United States and Iraq as embodied in the Strategic Framework Agreement," spokesman Jay Carney said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Syria to "immediately" end attacks on civilians Saturday, a day after President Bashar Assad launched a fierce crackdown that killed over 50 people.

Ban "appeals for military operations against civilians to stop at once," said his spokesman Martin Nesirky.

Iran's foreign minister and head of the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq declared on Saturday the issue of a Kurdish rebel group which has been launching attacks against the Islamic republic from its rear bases in Iraq was "over."

In July, Tehran launched a string of operations against the rebel Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) and began shelling districts near the border with Iraq, killing dozens including the rebels' deputy commander.

Israeli air raids killed seven Islamic Jihad militants in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, prompting a massive barrage of retaliatory rocket fire, officials said.

Adham Abu Selmiya, spokesman for Gaza's emergency services, said five members of the al-Quds Brigades, Islamic Jihad's armed wing, were killed and three critically wounded in a first Israeli attack.