Israeli President Shimon Peres on Saturday saluted as "courageous" remarks by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in which he appears to relinquish Palestinian refugees' right to return to their former homes in what is now Israel.

"Abu Mazen's courageous words prove that Israel has a real partner for peace," Peres said in a statement, using the name by which the Palestinian president is informally known in Arabic.

Iraqi police on Saturday arrested the head of a jail from which dozens of al-Qaida militants escaped weeks ago, hours after he left hospital after being treated for wounds suffered in the incident.

Brigadier General Laith al-Salmani is now being investigated in connection with the September 27 jailbreak, when more than 100 inmates escaped from the prison in Tikrit, although several were killed or recaptured in the following days and weeks.

Details emerged on Saturday of plans to reshape Syria's opposition into a representative government-in-exile, on the eve of key talks between regime opponents.

The talks starting Sunday in the Qatari capital Doha come amid U.S. criticism of the main exiled opposition group, the Syrian National Council (SNC), which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said this week was not representative.

A cargo of weapons originating in Turkey was seized by Yemeni authorities on Saturday in the southern port of Aden, the defense ministry Internet website26sep.net reported.

Citing security sources, the report said the arms had been found in boxes used for biscuits, in a container dispatched from Turkey.

Israel lodged a complaint with United Nations monitors on Saturday after three Syrian tanks entered the demilitarized Golan Heights zone that separates the two countries, a military spokeswoman said.

"Three Syrian tanks entered the demilitarized zone near the central Golan heights and the Israel Defense Forces filed a violation complaint to the U.N.," a statement said.

Gunmen killed three Egyptian policemen and seriously wounded a fourth on Saturday in El-Arish, in the Sinai Peninsula, state television said.

"Armed men who might belong to a jihadist group attacked a police vehicle and fired on its passengers before fleeing," a security source said.

Attacks north of Baghdad killed at least three people on Saturday, including two soldiers gunned down at a checkpoint, officials said.

The two soldiers were killed and three others wounded when gunmen opened fire on their checkpoint in the town of Taji, just north of the capital, early Saturday, security and medical officials said.

A group of key Syrian political opposition figures including former Premier Riad Hijab and long-time dissident Riad Seif have ruled out any dialogue with Damascus before President Bashar Assad steps down.

The consensus was reached at a meeting in Amman attended by 25 opposition figures ahead of a key meeting of the Syrian National Council in the Qatari capital to decide the future of the exiled opposition bloc, Hijab's office said in a statement received on Saturday.

A Syrian rights group on Saturday released videos of pro-regime fighters apparently killing prisoners and cutting ears from bodies, after a video showing rebels executing soldiers raised international concerns.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based watchdog, said it had received the videos after the images of rebels appearing to beat and kill captured troops sparked an international uproar.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak disavowed on Saturday comments by a top aide who said he doubted there would be any dialogue between Israeli leaders and Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

"The comments by (policy department chief) Amos Gilad do not reflect the policy of the defense ministry," Barak said in a statement quoted by public radio.