Under pressure from a jihadist insurgency, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has boosted police and judicial powers with a new anti-terrorism law that also imposes hefty fines for "false" media reports.

Rights groups, which have accused Sisi of imposing a repressive regime since the army ousted president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, fear the new law could be used to further muzzle dissent and target critics.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag emphasized that the Lebanese officials are primarily accountable for the political and economic situation, stressing that the long-term relations with regional countries might play a positive role in several pressing issues.

“The primary responsibility lies on the Lebanese officials whether regarding the political or economic situations,” said Kaag in an interview with Iran's News Agency IRNA on Monday.

The defense for ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi filed an appeal against a death sentence and prison term for the Islamist former leader, a lawyer said on Saturday.

Morsi, who was toppled by the army in 2013, was sentenced to death in June for allegedly participating in prison breaks and violence against police, and to life in prison for espionage.

Egypt hit back Saturday at a call by Human Rights Watch for an international investigation into the killing of hundreds of protesters in Cairo by security forces two years ago.

The foreign ministry criticised the New York-based watchdog's report on the deaths of supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in Rabaa al-Adawiya Square as "politicised and lacking objectivity".

Egyptian police using tear gas dispersed small demonstrations in Cairo by supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on Friday's second anniversary of the killing of hundreds of protesters by security forces.

Police were deployed at the capital's main intersections and outside government buildings.

Four Egyptian crewmen were killed when their aircraft malfunctioned and crashed during an operation against jihadists in the southwest of the country on Thursday, the army said.

The military spokesman said two crewmen were also wounded, and that four vehicles belonging to jihadists were destroyed during the operation.

A Croatian hostage whom the Islamic State group claims to have beheaded is thought to have been kidnapped by a criminal gang in Egypt before being turned over to the jihadists, Croatia's foreign minister said Thursday.

Tomislav Salopek, a 31-year-old father of two working for a French engineering company, was seized last month from a car some 22 kilometers (14 miles) west of Cairo.

The Islamic State group's apparent beheading of a Croatian engineer in Egypt threatens to scare off tourists and foreign investment but could boost Western support for Cairo's fight against jihadists, analysts say.

The purported execution of Tomislav Salopek, who worked for a French geoscience company, is likely to encourage the policy of Washington and Paris of supplying weapons to Cairo to battle extremists, according to experts.

An Egyptian court sentenced Thursday a police officer to five years in jail in his retrial for the deaths of 37 Islamist prisoners who suffocated from tear gas, a court official said.

The officer had been sentenced to 10 years at the first trial in March 2014, but that verdict was overturned by an appeals court and a retrial was ordered.

The Islamic State group said Wednesday it has beheaded a Croatian hostage, and released a picture of a body after what would be the first such killing of a Westerner in Egypt.

Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic told reporters he could not "confirm with 100 percent certainty" that Tomislav Salopek, who worked for French company CGG, had been murdered.