Russia's arms export agency said Wednesday its deliveries to Syria were in line with U.N. regulations but declined to comment specifically on U.S. claims that it was sending attack helicopters to the regime.

Rosoboronexport "does not supply weapons and military technology in contradiction with U.N. Security Council security requirements and other international agreements," an agency spokesman told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.

China said Wednesday the situation in Syria had reached a "critical juncture" and expressed its "great concern", as a U.N. official said the country was now in a full-scale civil war.

World powers are groping to find a way to end the bloodshed in Syria with the toll growing daily despite a ceasefire that should have gone into effect from April 12, and there are reports of children being used as human shields.

Syria's northwest region of al-Haffe has been "cleansed" of terrorists and "calm has been restored" in the area, the official SANA news agency quoted officials as saying on Wednesday.

"Security and calm were restored in the area of al-Haffe (in Latakia province), which was cleansed after armed terrorist groups assaulted citizens and vandalized and burned a number of public and private properties," the agency said.

Two raids on al-Qaida in Yemen, at least one of them reportedly by a U.S. drone, killed 30 people Wednesday, an official said, as the jihadists came under new pressure a day after losing two key strongholds.

The raids targeted al-Qaida fighters fleeing the southern region of Abyan where the army scored its first major victory against the jihadists on Tuesday, retaking the town of Jaar and the provincial capital Zinjibar, more than a year after they fell under militant control.

A wave of apparently coordinated bombings and shootings rocked Iraq during a major Shiite religious commemoration on Wednesday, killing at least 72 people and wounding more than 250, many of them pilgrims.

The attacks, which came as pilgrims flocked to a shrine to mark the anniversary of the death of Imam Moussa Kadhim, a revered imam in Shiite Islam, were the deadliest in Iraq since August 15, 2011 when 74 people were killed.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday that foreign military intervention was "not the right path" in Syria despite the U.N.'s peacekeeping chief declaring the country in civil war.

Rasmussen said there were "no plans at this stage" for a NATO operation, as he condemned the U.N. Security Council failure to reach agreement as a "big mistake", saying Russia could have an "instrumental role" in brokering peace.

Syria is now in a full-scale civil war, U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said, as the United States voiced fears the U.N. mission in the country may not survive once its mandate expires in July.

World powers are groping to find a way to end the bloodshed in Syria with the toll growing daily despite a ceasefire that should have gone into effect from April 12, and amid reports of children being used as human shields.

At least 73 people were killed in shelling and clashes across Syria on Tuesday, 61 of whom were civilians and rebels and 12 regime soldiers, according to the opposition Local Coordination Committees and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Regime forces rained shells on rebel positions in the northwestern Latakia province, pounding the town of al-Haffe for the eighth straight day as they appeared to be preparing to storm it, monitors said.

Tunisia said Tuesday it has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in eight regions of the country including the capital Tunis after rioting blamed on ultra-conservative Salafist Muslims.

The curfews take effect from 9 pm to 5 am and cover areas in the southeast and northeast of the country including the greater Tunis region, the defense and interior ministries said in a joint statement.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that Washington would find it hard to support the extension of the observer mission beyond next month if the government of President Bahar al-Assad's regime continued to show "contempt" for a U.N.-backed ceasefire that was supposed to go into effect from April 12.

Asked whether he believed Syria is in a civil war, Ladsous told reporters: "Yes I think we can say that. Clearly what is happening is that the government of Syria lost some large chunks of territory, several cities to the opposition, and wants to retake control.