Six people believed to have orchestrated the killing of an opposition figure whose assassination in February plunged Tunisia into a major political crisis have been identified, a minister said Wednesday.

"We have identified the sponsors and the authors of the assassination of Chokri Belaid," said Noureddin B'Hiri, senior adviser to the prime minister, after a cabinet meeting.

Three militants were killed in Egypt's Sinai peninsula on Wednesday when their car bomb detonated before they reached their intended target, security officials said.

The bomb went off as the assailants entered the north Sinai town of El-Arish, where two soldiers were killed in separate shooting attacks earlier on Wednesday, the officials said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross warned Wednesday that thousands of Syrian civilians besieged by government and rebel forces alike were in desperate need of aid.

"Tens of thousands of civilians in Syria are living in extremely harsh conditions in sealed-off areas, and humanitarian aid is being prevented from reaching them. The consequences could be tragic," said the Geneva-based humanitarian organization.

Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region is preparing to host a conference that will bring together Kurdish parties from Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey, an official said on Wednesday.

"The general conference will be held within a month from now," Adnan al-Mufti, a senior member of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, told Agence France Presse.

The United States has delayed plans to supply Egypt with an additional four F-16 fighter jets due to unrest gripping the country, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

"Given the current situation in Egypt we do not believe it is appropriate to move forward at this time with the delivery of F-16s," spokesman George Little told reporters.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday urged greater pressure on Iran over its nuclear program as he met Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida in Jerusalem.

"I think we need to increase the pressure on Iran. Only by doing this will there be real changes in the attitude of that country," Netanyahu's office was quoted him as saying at the meeting.

A Norwegian woman who narrowly escaped jail after reporting she was raped in Dubai arrived home on Wednesday, telling media that she had acted "stupidly" during her prolonged ordeal.

Marte Dalelv, 24, said in an interview with a local newspaper that she had been tricked into withdrawing her initial rape report, exposing herself to being convicted for consensual extramarital sex.

A man suspected of wanting to fight alongside radical Islamist rebels in Syria was detained in France as part of an anti-terrorist operation, a source close to the case said Wednesday.

The unidentified 47-year-old was visiting his family near the eastern city of Belfort when he was taken in for questioning Tuesday by intelligence officers, the source told Agence France Presse.

Bahrain police said on Wednesday they recaptured two men suspected of attacks on security forces, two months after they escaped from custody along with other detainees.

The pair, who were arrested late Tuesday, were accused over "a number of terror acts," including setting a car ablaze near the kingdom's Formula One circuit, and detonating a car bomb near Manama's Financial Harbor, police said in a statement.

Gunmen killed two Egyptian soldiers in the restive Sinai on Wednesday, security officials said, as the military chief called for mass rallies to back a crackdown on "terrorism and violence".

One soldier died of a bullet wound to the chest after gunmen fired at a checkpoint near the north Sinai town of EL-Arish, the officials said.