Fierce battles raged on the edges of Damascus Tuesday as the army pressed a major assault to crush rebels around the capital, a monitoring group and activists said.

And in the contested city of Aleppo in the country's north, rebels attempted to advance into western regime-held districts, sparking clashes with government forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday urged all sides in Egypt to ensure that protests this weekend will not be violent and instead bring about "positive change" in the polarized country.

Kerry, who discussed Egypt's chaotic politics with Saudi leaders during a visit to the regional power, said demonstrations were a "very legitimate" way of expression amid fears that authorities will clamp down.

Syrian President Bashar Assad promulgated a law on Tuesday imposing a prison sentence and fine on anyone entering the country illegally, state news agency SANA said.

"Any person who enters Syrian territory in an illegal manner will face between a year and five years in prison," the text published by SANA said.

A widely anticipated peace conference for Syria will probably not take place next month as hoped, U.N. peace envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi said Tuesday.

"Frankly, I doubt that the conference will take place in July," he told reporters in Geneva ahead of a second meeting with U.S. and Russian diplomats aimed at paving the way for the conference.

Unknown gunmen launched a dawn attack on Tuesday on a Libyan army checkpoint south of Sirte, the home town of former dictator Moammar Gadhafi, killing six soldiers, a military officer said.

"An attack at dawn Tuesday against a checkpoint of the army in the town of Khuchum al-Kheil, south of Sirte, killed six soldiers who were on guard duty," local military officer Khaled al-Akari was quoted as saying by Lana news agency.

Nearly 9,000 Syrian refugees staying in Jordan left the kingdom for home this month, bringing the number of returnees to more than 68,000 in the past two years, a government official said Tuesday.

"Some 8,974 Syrian refugees voluntarily returned to their country in June, mostly from the northern refugee camp of Zaatari," Anmar Hmud, the government spokesman for Syrian refugee affairs, told Agence France Presse.

Tunisia's army General Rachid Ammar, who refused orders to crush the 2011 uprising that toppled ex-president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, has announced he is stepping down.

"I have asked to exercise my right to retire, because I have easily reached the age limit," said the 67-year-old general in comments broadcast on Tuesday by Tunisian radio.

Syrians caught up in their nation's civil war are increasingly having to cut out basic foods from their diets to save money, or are resorting to begging to survive, the World Food Program warned Tuesday.

Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the U.N. food agency, said its teams had managed to carry out their first assessment in the embattled city of Aleppo since December, as well as taking stock of the situation in other parts of Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Tuesday that the mere resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians would yield no results if both parties don't take the time needed to tackle the core issues.

The prime minister's remarks, made two days before the return of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on a mission to revive peace negotiations, appeared to reflect concern that any resumption of talks with the Palestinians could be short-lived.

Bombs targeting protesters and pilgrims outside Baghdad killed 14 people on Tuesday, the latest in a surge of violence that has sparked fears of a revival of all-out sectarian conflict.

The latest attacks came a day after 35 people were killed nationwide, most of them in a wave of car bombings in the capital, as Iraq grapples with a prolonged political deadlock and months of protests among its Sunni Arab minority.