The worst violence to hit Iraq in five years is a major challenge, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in remarks broadcast on Friday, as attacks killed eight people.

July was the deadliest month for Iraq since 2008, when the country was emerging from a bloody sectarian conflict, Iraqi government and United Nations figures released on Thursday showed.

Fresh clashes between Kurdish fighters and jihadists erupted in the majority Kurdish province of Hasakeh in northern Syria early on Friday, a monitoring group said.

At least 12 members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) were killed, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which added that 22 Kurdish fighters have been killed over the past few days.

Iran held massive anti-Israel rallies Friday, with president-elect Hassan Rowhani calling the arch-foe Jewish state a "wound" on the Muslim world, drawing a sharp response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"In our region, a wound has for many years been sitting on the body of the Islamic world in the shadow of occupation of the holy land of Palestine and the dear Quds (Jerusalem)," Rowhani said in remarks broadcast on state television.

Iran's outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned arch-foe Israel Friday in one of his last public speeches that a regional storm was brewing that would "uproot" the Jewish state.

"I will inform you with God as my witness, a devastating storm is on the way that will uproot the basis of Zionism," Ahmadinejad said in Quds (Jerusalem) Day remarks broadcast on state television.

Jordanian border guards have foiled an attempt to smuggle large amounts of weapons and drugs into the kingdom from Syria, the army said Friday.

"Forces of the frontier guard yesterday evening (Thursday) seized large quantities of munitions and different types of drugs during an attempt to smuggle them into the kingdom," the army said in a statement.

Tunisian forces launched a land and air operation against Islamist militants near the Algerian border on Friday, the military said, as Tunis battles a crisis sparked by a political slaying.

"A huge operation, with ground and air units, was launched at dawn to clean up the (Chaambi) mountain" area, armed forces spokesman Taoufik Rahmouni told Tunisian media.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for their leadership in agreeing to resume peace talks, the White House said.

In separate statements with very similar wording following phone calls with the two men, Obama praised their "leadership and courage" in sending negotiators back to the table this week in Washington for the first time in three years.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday pledged support for Yemen's leader as he praised his visitor's cooperation against al-Qaida and the country's comparatively smooth political transition.

Obama welcomed President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi hours after a deadly U.S. drone strike in Yemen, where Washington has been deeply involved in a campaign against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

Attacks killed eight Iraqi security forces members on Thursday, while four suicide bombers were shot dead attempting to target police, officials said.

In the deadliest attack, gunmen killed four soldiers and wounded three as they traveled to join their unit near Tikrit, north of Baghdad.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday the Egyptian army, which deposed president Mohammed Morsi, had intervened at the request of millions to protect democracy and had restored it.

Kerry made the remarks in a interview in Pakistan where he earlier congratulated the new government on an historic transition of democratic power in a country long dominated by the military.