Syria will not accept a U.N. proposal to recognize an autonomous rebel administration in east Aleppo as part of a truce deal, the country's foreign minister said Sunday.

At least seven children were killed on Sunday by rebel rocket fire that hit a primary school in the government-held west of Aleppo city, state media said.

Hundreds of people protested on Saturday, demanding justice for a fishmonger whose grisly death sparked outrage nationwide, while calling for "dignity."

Violence subsided Sunday in Yemen, a day after the beginning of a 48-hour ceasefire declared by the pro-government Arab coalition battling rebel fighters for almost 20 months. 

Syria's regime on Sunday pursued a relentless assault of rebel-held east Aleppo that has killed more than 100 civilians in recent days, as the U.N.'s peace envoy arrived in Damascus for talks.

Iraqi troops faced stiff resistance Saturday from Islamic State militants as they pushed deeper into eastern Mosul, backed by aerial support from the U.S.-led international coalition, a senior military commander said.

At dawn, troops moved into the Muharabeen and Ulama neighborhoods after fully liberating the adjacent Tahrir neighborhood on Friday, said Maj. Gen. Sami al-Aridi of the Iraqi special forces. Al-Aridi said IS militants were fighting back with snipers, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar rounds.

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has praised U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump, saying that his inflammatory statements from the campaign trail do not necessarily reflect the actions he will take as president.

El-Sissi, in an interview with Portuguese news agency LUSA released on Saturday, said, "let's not jump into conclusions or worry" about future U.S. actions or policies in the Middle East. The army chief-turned-president was interviewed prior to his upcoming Nov. 21 visit to Portugal.

Syrian opposition activists are reporting heavy bombardment of besieged rebel-held neighborhoods in the northern city of Aleppo saying at least six people have been killed.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian government warplanes and artillery struck more than 20 neighborhoods in east Aleppo killing six people.

An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced the head of the journalists' union and two members to two years in prison for "harbouring fugitives", allowing them to pay bail pending an appeal.

Journalists Syndicate president Yahiya Kallash, Gamal Abd el-Rahim and Khaled Elbalshy were charged in May with sheltering two journalists wanted over protests against the transfer of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi policeman was shot dead Saturday in the kingdom's Shiite-populated east, the interior ministry said.

The officer was hit by gunfire from "an unknown source" as he got out of his car in a neighbourhood northwest of the city of Dammam, said a ministry spokesman quoted by the official SPA news agency.