Iraq's Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, who faces trial in absentia in Baghdad on charges of running a death squad, is in Ankara for medical treatment, media reported Friday.

Hashemi, who is the subject of a Red Notice issued by the international police agency Interpol, travelled from Istanbul to Ankara on Thursday for treatment at a military hospital, private NTV television said.

Syrian forces killed at least 13 people as tens of thousands of protesters defied regime gunfire and took to the streets on Friday, a day after twin bombings killed dozens of people in Damascus, a monitoring group and activists reported.

Four people were killed in the central province of Hama, two in the northeastern province of al-Hasakeh, two in the southern province of Daraa, one in the central province of Homs and one in the northern province of Aleppo.

Egyptians abroad began voting on Friday for their first president since veteran leader Hosni Mubarak was toppled last year, less than two weeks before polling stations open in the country.

They have until May 17 to cast their ballots in embassies and consulates. Voting in Egypt will take place on May 23 and 24, with a rerun in June if none of the 13 candidates wins a majority in the first round.

Iran on Friday condemned the latest deadly bomb blasts to reel its ally Syria in a 14-month-old uprising and accused Western powers of orchestrating them.

"The terrorist acts were guided by (global) arrogance and the enemies of free nations," First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said, quoted by state news agency IRNA, using the Islamic republic's term for Western powers.

Bahrain police fired tear gas and birdshot during overnight clashes with protesters demanding the release of jailed opposition activists, wounding several demonstrators, witnesses said on Friday.

The clashes broke out in Shiite villages around the capital Manama when hundreds of demonstrators flooded the streets chanting anti-regime slogans and calling on the authorities to release the prisoners, the witnesses said.

The Syrian regime is trying to destroy the U.N.-brokered peace plan aimed at ending 14 months of conflict, opposition leader Burhan Ghalioun told reporters in Tokyo on Friday.

"The regime is now trying to kill this (Kofi) Annan plan, and by a new technique which is terrorism," Ghalioun said, a day after suicide bombers killed at least 55 people in horrific attacks in Damascus.

The U.N. Security Council on Thursday condemned the deadliest bomb attacks of Syria's 14-month uprising, urging all sides to stick to an international peace plan after at least 55 people were killed.

The Syrian government and opposition traded the blame for Thursday's twin suicide bomb attacks in Damascus, which also left nearly 400 people wounded in horrific scenes of carnage.

Syria's U.N. envoy said Thursday that British, French and Belgian nationals were among foreign fighters killed in the country's mounting conflict and that there was al-Qaida involvement.

The ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, told the U.N. Security Council that 12 foreign fighters had been killed and 26 detained in recent clashes with Syrian forces.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday urged the United Nations to address the plight of some 1,600 Palestinian prisoners who are on a mass hunger strike in Israeli prisons that has left several detainees close to death.

Abbas raised the fate of the prisoners during discussions with the U.N.'s Middle East peace envoy Robert Serry, a statement from the U.N. official's office said.

Syria said Thursday's suicide attacks that killed at least 55 people and wounded hundreds was the work of "terrorists" armed and funded by foreign organizations and media.

The foreign ministry made the accusation in a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hours after the deadliest bombing attacks of the country's 14-month uprising, which also wounded nearly 400 people in Damascus.