When a suicide bomber blew himself up in a Cairo church a week ago, it marked a bloody escalation by Egypt's jihadi militants, raising fears that an insurgency which for years largely focused on fighting in the Sinai and killing policemen may now turn to unleash attacks on civilians in the country's capital.

A stepped up campaign by militants linked to the Islamic State group would be a heavy blow to a country trying to rebuild a wrecked economy and revive a vital tourism industry. The prospect is already spreading terror among Egypt's Christians, who could be a main target.

Growing up in Egypt, Mina and other Copts remember all too well the anti-Christian slurs they used to hear at school and on the street.

U.S. President Barack Obama declared Friday that Bashar Assad's Syrian regime and its Iranian and Russian backers are responsible for the slaughter of civilians in Aleppo, with "blood... on their hands."

"The world as we speak is united in horror at the savage assault by the Syrian regime and its Russian and Iranian allies on the city of Aleppo," he told an end-of-year news conference. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Friday on residents of a wildcat Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank to refrain from violence against security forces during their imminent eviction.

U.S.-led coalition aircraft have destroyed heavy weaponry seized by Islamic State jihadists when they retook the Syrian city of Palmyra from regime forces over the weekend, officials said Friday.

The strikes on Thursday destroyed an air defense artillery system, 14 tanks, three artillery systems, two IS-held buildings and two tactical vehicles, the coalition said in a statement.

France will on Friday seek Russia's backing at the U.N. Security Council to allow international observers to be deployed to Aleppo and urgent deliveries of humanitarian to the Syrian city, the ambassador said.

A draft resolution prepared by France, Germany and other European countries could be quickly adopted if there is a consensus at the council on the emergency measures, said Francois Delattre.

The death toll from last weekend's bombing of a Coptic church in Cairo has risen to 26 after an elderly woman died of her injuries, Egypt's health ministry said Friday.

A blast that rocked a police station in southeast Damascus on Friday was caused by a seven-year-old girl carrying a belt of explosives, Syrian media reported.

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman says Syrian President Bashar Assad is a 'butcher' who should be thrown out of the country along with his Iranian allies.

Gulf states have condemned Egypt's accusation of Qatari involvement in a Cairo church bombing last week that killed 25 people, a statement from the Gulf Cooperation Council said.

"GCC states are upset over dragging the name of member-state Qatar into this heinous crime," the group's secretary general Abdullatif al-Zayani said.