Turkey was shelling northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on Tuesday, a Kurdish rebel spokesman said, in the first report of Turkish bombardment in the area in more than two weeks.

The shelling began Monday night "against Khowakirk and Zab in northeast Dohuk" province, said Dozdar Hammo, a spokesman for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which operates out of bases in Kurdistan.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flew in to Tripoli on Tuesday as Libya's new rulers try to crush the last pockets of resistance by fighters loyal to ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi.

The first U.S. cabinet official to visit Libya since 2008 when Washington wanted to forge a new relationship with Gadhafi, Clinton is seeking to bolster ties with the new rulers and promote Libya's transition to democracy.

Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was freed on Tuesday after five years in detention by Palestinian militants, said he hoped the prisoner swap in which he was liberated would lead to peace between both sides.

"I hope this deal helps achieve peace between both sides, Israel and the Palestinians," he told Egyptian television in his first interview since his release.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has met with leaders of Syria's opposition movement urging unity in pursuit of a peaceful transition in the country, a Turkish diplomat said Tuesday.

"The minister met with representatives of the Syrian opposition, for the first time, in Ankara on Monday," the diplomat told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

Yemen's Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkul Karman said the U.N. must act "immediately and decisively" to halt a deadly government crackdown on protesters calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to resign.

Karman urged the United Nations "to take immediate and decisive action to stop the massacres and hold the perpetrators accountable," in a letter to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, a copy of which she showed to Agence France Presse late Monday during a visit to Doha.

At least five protesters were killed and dozens wounded on Tuesday as gunmen loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh opened fire at demonstrators in the Yemeni capital, an Agence France Presse journalist and medics said.

The bodies of two demonstrators were taken earlier to a makeshift hospital in Change Square, where anti-Saleh protesters have camped out, an AFP photographer said. Dozens of demonstrators were wounded or hurt by tear gas.

Some of the Palestinian prisoners released as part of a deal to hand over captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit will be taken in by Turkey, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported Monday.

The agency quoted diplomatic sources as saying that Turkey would host some of the released prisoners along with Qatar and Egypt.

Looking dazed, a thin and pale Gilad Shalit emerged from a pickup truck Tuesday under the escort of his Hamas captors and the Egyptian mediators who helped arrange the Israeli tank crewman's release after more than five years in captivity.

Freed in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, an ashen-faced Shalit struggled to breathe in an interview with Egyptian TV minutes after his release, saying that he had feared he would remain in captivity for "many more years." He said he was "very excited" to be headed home and that he missed his family and friends.

Kuwait's Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Al-Sabah, a senior member of the ruling family, has resigned, local media reported Tuesday, amid tensions over a graft scandal involving several MPs.

Citing "high ranking" sources, Al-Anbaa newspaper said Sheikh Mohammad, who has been foreign minister in the oil-rich Gulf state since 2003, "submitted his resignation on Monday and did not attend the cabinet meeting."

Syrian troops killed 25 people, 21 of which were shot dead during search operations in the flashpoint central city of Homs on Monday, a human rights watchdog said.

"Twenty-one people, some civilians and others police officers, were killed in Homs during operations by the army and the security services in several neighborhoods of the city," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.