Israel was still holding five foreign women activists on Saturday who were arrested in the West Bank after a demonstration a day earlier, a police spokeswoman said.

"Five European activists arrested Friday during a demonstration in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) remain in detention," Luba Samri told Agence France Presse.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday reaffirmed Washington's "strong" support for Egypt's democratic transition, after talks with newly-elected President Mohammed Morsi.

U.N. observers in Syria visited on Saturday the central village of Treimsa, where more than 150 people were killed this week, according to a spokeswoman for the U.N. mission and an activist on the ground.

An activist in Hama province calling himself Abu Ghazi said the observers had met residents of the village and "inspected places that were bombed and where there were traces of blood."

Iraq's prime minister on Saturday condemned the killing of more than 150 people in a central Syrian town two days ago, describing the deaths as an "ugly massacre."

"The ugly massacre that took place in Treimsa town, in Hama province, provokes feelings of concern and condemnation," Nouri al-Maliki said in a statement published on his official website.

Syrian troops and pro-regime militias stormed and torched a southern town on Saturday, reports said, as U.N. observers visited a central village where a mass killing has provoked harsh global condemnation.

Hundreds of soldiers backed by helicopter gunships attacked Khirbet Ghazaleh in the province of Daraa -- the cradle of a 16-month uprising -- amid heavy gunfire, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Gunmen killed nine people, including seven members of the security forces, on Saturday in separate attacks on checkpoints in north Iraq, security and medical officials said.

In the deadliest shooting, five members of the security forces died when gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint in the Turkmen town of Rashidiyah, northeast of the main northern city of Mosul, an army captain said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Libyan authorities should take immediate steps to assume custody of thousands of detainees still held by militias, a rights watchdog said on Saturday, after a deadline for a handover passed.

"Despite months of cajoling the militias, the transitional authorities missed the deadline and failed to gain control over approximately 5,000 people still held arbitrarily by armed groups, some subjected to severe torture," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

A gunman was killed during an attack on a police station as four Saudi policemen were wounded in a separate assault on their patrols in the kingdom's Shiite-populated east, state media reported.

"Four masked gunmen on motorbikes entered al-Awamiya police center where one of them threw a petrol bomb while the rest opened fire at the station," interior ministry spokesman Mansur al-Turki said, quoted by SPA news agency.

Iran is ready to play a role alongside other regional countries to try to establish a dialogue between the Syrian government and the opposition, an official was quoted as saying on Saturday.

"Iran is ready to play an appropriate role in bringing stability and security in Syria" to prevent the crisis "quickly spreading to the whole region," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told the Iran newspaper.

Hundreds of soldiers backed by helicopter gunships attacked a town in southern Syria on Saturday, as at least 28 people were killed across the country, reports said.

"Tanks and hundreds of soldiers stormed Khirbet Ghazaleh amid heavy gunfire" following helicopter bombing raids, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, without providing any casualty figures.