Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has been discharged from hospital in Saudi Arabia and is recovering, his press secretary said on Wednesday, after a second minor operation in less than four months.

"President Bashir left the hospital today at 8:00 am local time," and is now recovering in the Saudi kingdom before continuing with his schedule there, Emad Sayed Ahmed told Agence France Presse.

Turkish commandos have staged a raid against Kurd rebel hideouts in Iraq, NTV news channel reported Wednesday.

The rare cross-border strike hit targets some five kilometers (three miles) inside the border and came as part of an air-backed operation that has been going on for two days, according to NTV.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon urged President Barack Obama Wednesday to act quickly on ending the war in Syria and reviving the Middle East peace process as he congratulated the U.S. leader on his re-election.

The United Nations "will continue to count on the active engagement of the United States" on key global issues "as it strives to meet the hopes and expectations of people around the world," Ban said through a spokesman.

Iran executed 10 drug traffickers in a prison in Tehran on Wednesday, a statement on the website of the prosecutor's office said.

The men sent to the gallows were convicted of trafficking "hundreds of kilos" (pounds) of narcotics, the statement said.

Unknown gunmen shot dead a police commander with counter-terrorism forces in the Yemeni capital on Wednesday, a security official said.

"Two gunmen on motorbikes shot dead the officer, Commander Mohammed Hussein al-Feel, before escaping," said the official.

The main opposition Syrian National Council voiced hope on Wednesday that resolving the conflict in Syria would figure at the top of re-elected U.S. President Barack Obama's agenda.

"We hope President Obama places Syria among the priorities in his foreign policy to put an end to the crisis and achieve the aspirations of the Syrian people to choose their own government and their own president, just like the American people did," leading SNC member Radwan Ziadeh told Agence France Presse.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday congratulated U.S. President Barack Obama on his re-election and called on him to pursue Middle East peace efforts.

Abbas "congratulated U.S. President Barak Obama on his re-election as U.S. president for a second term," said a statement carried by official news agency WAFA.

Fierce clashes, shelling and a bomb attack rocked Damascus on Wednesday, a watchdog said, as violence moved increasingly from the suburbs into districts of the Syrian capital.

A car bomb exploded overnight in the southern Qadam neighborhood, causing at least one death, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based watchdog that relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground.

The Syrian rebel commander in central Homs province, Colonel Kassem Saadeddine, said in a video posted Wednesday that he had escaped an assassination attempt by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.

"Thanks be to God, we have returned after having escaped from the hands of Assad's bands," Saadeddine, also the spokesman for the Joint Command of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), said in the video posted overnight.

Britain is to begin talks with armed opposition groups in Syria as it seeks to help end the violence, Prime Minister David Cameron's office said Wednesday.

The government has authorized officials to have contacts with military representatives of the groups, Downing Street said, although government sources stressed the initiative was about political dialogue, not providing weapons.