Emirati authorities have arrested, Mohammed al-Roken, a prominent lawyer who has defended activists in the country, one of his sons told Agence France Presse on Tuesday.

"Police yesterday evening intercepted his car" as he went to search for another son, Rashid, and his brother-in-law Abdullah al-Hajeri, both of whom had disappeared near the southeastern town of Hatta, Salim al-Roken said. Salim, who was accompanying his father in a separate car, said Roken called and told them that "security services have arrested me."

Syrian rebels declared the battle to "liberate" Damascus has begun as heavy fighting raged across the capital on Tuesday and Russia said it will do everything to support a tattered peace plan.

The proclamation by the Free Syrian Army came as U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan said the 16-month-old crisis, which is increasingly being described as a civil war, was at a "critical time."

Syrian refugees in Jordan urged British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Tuesday to "get rid of" Syrian President Bashar Assad, as the official visited this Jordanian border town.

"We do not want food or water, we do not want money. We just want you to get rid of Bashar," some of them chanted as Hague and Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh toured Ramtha's Bashabsheh housing complex, a military-guarded compound that houses around 1,000 Syrian refugees.

India called on the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday to probe the fatal shooting of an Indian fisherman by a U.S. navy ship in waters off Dubai, the Indian foreign ministry said.

"India's ambassador in Abu Dhabi has requested UAE authorities to probe the circumstances of the tragic incident," ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said.

The Hamas government in Gaza executed three men convicted of murder on Tuesday morning, the interior ministry said.

"Based on religious law and our religion and what is stipulated in Palestinian law... three men convicted of intentional murder were executed on Tuesday morning in accordance with a court order sentencing them to death by hanging after their conviction," the Hamas interior ministry said in a statement.

The Kuwaiti opposition pressed for a multi-party system as part of a host of political and constitutional reforms to achieve a full parliamentary system and an elected government.

In a joint statement issued Monday night and titled a "declaration to the nation," the Islamist and nationalist opposition also called for legalizing political parties, reforming the judiciary and fighting corruption.

The Syrian consulate in Kazakhstan's largest city Almaty has been seriously damaged by a fire which staff blamed on an arson attack linked to the conflict raging in the country, a report said Tuesday.

Kazakh private KTK television said the entire third floor of the building where the consul's office was situated and documents held had burned down entirely along with all the archives.

Syrian President Bashar Assad will use chemical weapons against opposition forces and may have already deployed them, Nawaf Fares, the first Syrian ambassador to defect, told the BBC on Monday.

Fares, the most prominent politician to defect since the uprising against Assad began, insisted that the president's days were numbered but warned he would be prepared "to eradicate the entire Syrian people" to remain in power.

Russia on Monday blocked a proposed U.N. Security Council statement on mass killings in the Syrian village of Treimsa, diplomats said amid worsening deadlock over international action on the conflict.

Russian envoys opposed the statement saying it was not clear what had happened, council diplomats told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

Amid tensions over Iran and Syria, the United States has brought forward the deployment of an aircraft carrier to the Middle East to shorten the time when a sole carrier is in the region.

Pentagon spokesman George Little told reporters on Monday that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta last week approved a request for the USS John-Stennis strike group to be deployed four months earlier than scheduled.