Yemen on Monday sacked the commander of its police special forces, a day after clashes broke out as they tried in vain to disperse a Shiite rebel sit-in blocking the road to Sanaa airport.

General Fadl al-Qawsi was replaced by General Mohammed al-Ghadra, an official close to the interior ministry told Agence France-Presse, as thousands of Shiite Huthis stepped up the protest action.

Weapons sent by Western countries to forces fighting Islamic militants in Iraq may end up in the hands of Kurdish rebels in Turkey, Turkish foreign minister warned on Monday.

Hamas on Monday accused Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas of trying to sabotage a fragile reconciliation agreement after he accused them of running "a shadow government" in Gaza. 

The new United Nations envoy on the Syria conflict, Staffan de Mistura, is to make his first trip to Damascus on Tuesday, Syrian media reported.

De Mistura will hold three days of talks on the "prospects for a solution" to the conflict that has ravaged Syria since March 2011, the Al-Watan newapaper, which is close to the government, reported on Monday.

Iraq's parliament was to meet Monday under pressure to approve an inclusive government to win broad support against jihadists, as President Barack Obama prepares to unveil a strategy to defeat them.

The outgoing government has faced criticism that by alienating the Sunni Arab minority, it helped create conditions that revitalized Sunni militants including the Islamic State jihadist group, which led an offensive that seized much of the Sunni heartland in June.

Militants, including two suicide bombers, attacked a town north of Baghdad that has resisted jihadists, killing 18 people on Monday, police and a doctor said.

Islamic State fighters appear to be using captured U.S. military issue arms and weapons supplied to moderate rebels in Syria by Saudi Arabia, according to a report published on Monday.

The study by the London-based small-arms research organization Conflict Armament Research documented weapons seized by Kurdish forces from militants in Iraq and Syria over a 10-day period in July.

The jihadist militants who have seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria are intent upon creating "a house of blood", the U.N.'s new human rights chief said Monday.

In his maiden address to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein lashed out at the militant group calling itself the Islamic State, which has carved out a stronghold and declared a "caliphate" in an area straddling the border of the two conflict-torn nations.

Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei successfully underwent prostate surgery it was announced Monday, in an unprecedented public statement about his health, which has long been the subject of speculation.

The 75-year-old cleric, who has ruled since the death of the Islamic republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989, had a routine operation, according to IRNA, Iran's official news agency.

Arab states agreed on Sunday to take the "necessary measures" to confront Islamic State militants, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said, after a meeting of foreign ministers in Cairo.

"The Arab foreign ministers have agreed to take the necessary measures to confront terrorist groups including" IS, said Arabi at a news conference, without explicitly supporting U.S. calls for a coalition to back its air campaign against the militants in Iraq.