Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas will boycott the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Iran if his Islamist rival Ismail Haniya of Hamas attends, a minister told Agence France Presse on Saturday.

"President Abbas will not take part in the Non-Aligned summit if Haniya is present, no matter what form his attendance takes," foreign minister Riyad al-Malki said in Ramallah, headquarters of the Palestinian Authority.

The head of a Tunisian TV channel whose satirical show was abruptly pulled last week at a time of strained relations between the media and government Saturday denounced the issuing of a warrant for his arrest.

However, Ettounsiya director Sami Fehri also told the Express FM radio station he would not fight the warrant.

Dozens of bodies were found on Saturday in a besieged town near Damascus where Syrian troops have been waging fierce attacks to try to crush rebel holdouts in the capital, a monitoring group said.

At least 15 civilians, including two women and three children, were also killed on Saturday in the town of Daraya, which lies just southwest of Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Switzerland has pledged financial support to an independent network of doctors in Syria who are trying to create a field hospital in the conflict-torn nation, an official said Saturday.

Georg Farago, a spokesman for Switzerland's foreign ministry, said Switzerland would contribute 55,000 Swiss francs (45,800 euros, $57,000) and is willing to support other efforts that "aim to lessen the suffering of Syrians".

Syria's state news agency SANA said on Saturday that a fake email had been sent out in its name claiming that Vice President Faruq al-Shara had been sacked.

Speculation has swirled since last week over the fate of Shara, the most high-ranking Sunni Muslim official in President Bashar Assad's Alawite-led regime, since the opposition claimed a week ago he had tried to defect.

The Hamas premier in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, is to take part in the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Iran next week, a spokesman for the Palestinian Islamist movement said on Saturday.

"Prime minister Ismail Haniya will attend, in accordance with the invitation from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad," Taher al-Nunu, a spokesman for the Hamas government in Gaza, said in a statement.

Yemeni Transport Minister Waed Bathib on Saturday escaped an attempt on his life when his convoy came under gunfire in the southern port city of Aden, an aide told Agence France Presse.

"Unknown gunmen opened fire at the convoy of the minister after he left the airport of Aden" following an inspection visit, the aide said requesting anonymity. He said the assailants managed to escape.

Syrian forces launched a deadly assault in the southwestern belt of Damascus on Saturday, in what activists said was a new bid to crush "once and for all" the insurgency in the capital.

Combat helicopters and tanks also pounded rebel-held areas of the battered northern city of Aleppo, an Agence France Presse journalist and monitors said, as the army pressed on with its war against fighters seeking to topple President Bashar Assad.

Separate shootings in Iraq's main northern city of Mosul on Saturday left three people dead, including a local councilman, security and medical officials said.

In one attack, gunmen opened fire on a police checkpoint in Mosul, 350 kilometers from Baghdad, killing a policeman and a civilian, said police First Lieutenant Mohammed al-Juburi and Dr. Mahmoud Haddad at Mosul General Hospital.

Mohammed Omar Oso and members of his family were seized from their home in the upscale western Damascus district of Mazzeh, according to militant groups, including the Rally of Artists in Syria, which posted the information on Facebook.

The reports about Oso, who has starred in several popular television soap operas, could not be independently confirmed.