Nine suspected al-Qaida militants have been killed in an attack on a Yemeni military unit in the country's restive southern province of Abyan, a military official told Agence France Presse Thursday.

A Yemeni soldier was also killed in the attack which took place late Wednesday near Abyan's capital Zinjibar.

An Israeli air strike against a car in Gaza City on Thursday killed at least two Palestinians and wounded two others, Palestinian medical and security sources said.

The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the reported strike, which Palestinian security sources said was carried out by an Israeli drone.

Armed "terrorists" have blown up an oil pipeline west of the flashpoint Syrian city of Homs, the official SANA news agency reported on Thursday.

"An armed terrorist group targeted in a sabotage operation the pipeline of Tal al-Shor, west of Homs," Syria's third-largest city, SANA said.

Jerusalem's city council has ordered the closure within a week of a wooden access ramp to the sensitive al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City, saying the structure was "a threat to public safety."

City engineer Shlomo Eshkol issued the order "to close the structure and not allow any use of it" in a letter sent to the Western Wall Heritage Foundation which is responsible for the upkeep of the structure, known as the Mughrabi Ramp.

Syrian activists on Thursday launched a campaign of civil disobedience to pile pressure on President Bashar Assad, after he drew a stinging rebuke from the U.S. for denying he ordered a deadly crackdown.

Local human rights groups said more than 100 people have been killed in Syria since the weekend, and the U.N. estimates at least 4,000 have died since March when anti-regime protests erupted.

Yemen's main southern opposition leader, Hassan Baoum, was released from jail along with his son just hours after the formation of a transitional unity government, a family member told Agence France Presse in Sanaa.

Baoum and his son Fawaz were arrested on February 20 in Yemen's southern port city Aden, where they had planned to join an anti-government protest. They were freed late on Wednesday.

Turkey announced on Wednesday a new set of sanctions against Syria as ties between the two former allies strained further over the Damascus regime's deadly crackdown on opponents.

"We will impose 30 percent tax on goods coming from Syria," Customs and Trade Minister Hayati Yazici was quoted as saying by the private NTV television.

The United States said Wednesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was either disconnected from reality or "crazy" after he argued he was not responsible for killing thousands of protesters.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner reiterated the U.S. view that Assad has lost legitimacy and should step down after the Syrian leader said in a rare interview that "only a crazy person" would kill his own people.

The regime of President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday urged Syrians to vote en masse in municipal elections next week, while its crackdown on dissent showed no signs of abating.

"December 12 is an important moment. All citizens must take part in the municipal elections and vote for the candidates they consider best capable of defending the public interest," wrote Al-Baath, the newspaper of the ruling party which has been in power since 1963.

Yemen's Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Basindawa said on Wednesday he had finalized his new unity government and would disclose the line-up later in the day.

"The government has been formed and we will announce it formally this evening," Basindawa told Agence France Presse in the Yemeni capital Sanaa.