Syria's Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi on Saturday called for a national dialogue to resolve the country's crisis and said the army was fighting to protect the chances for talks.

"The only way to succeed in Syria is to sit down at the table to launch a national dialogue," Zohbi said in an interview with state television.

Three Gazans were killed and 30 injured by Israeli shelling on Saturday after militants fired an anti-tank rocket at an Israeli jeep, wounding four soldiers, sources on both sides said.

The flare-up was one of the most serious clashes in a single day since Israel's devastating 22-day operation in the Gaza Strip over New Year 2009.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill visited the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem on Saturday and met with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, on the second day of his Holy Land trip.

After his visit to the Bethlehem church, built over the site where Christians believe Mary gave birth to Jesus in a stable, Kirill met with the Palestinian president at his office in the West Bank city.

Kuwait has released two members of the al-Sabah ruling family after holding them for two days allegedly over tweets deemed critical of the government, they said on Twitter Saturday.

Sheikh Abdullah Salem al-Sabah was released late on Friday, while Sheikh Nawaf Malek al-Sabah was freed on Saturday afternoon.

Two aides to a tribal chief with alleged al-Qaida links were killed in a clash with pro-army militiamen in the troubled southern province of Abyan on Saturday, a local militia official said.

"Two aides of (Tareq al-Fadhli) were killed and another man was wounded" when the militiamen fired on Fadhli's house in Abyan's capital Zinjibar, the official said.

Syria's opposition resumed unity talks in the Qatari capital on Saturday under a cloud of reservations by the Syrian National Council main bloc over a proposed plan for a broad-based government-in-waiting.

The SNC said it would put forth its own proposals at the repeatedly delayed talks and suggested any final agreement would need more time, despite mounting frustration with its stance among other dissident factions.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due in Egypt on November 17 for talks on boosting ties between the two Muslim countries, foreign ministry spokesman Amr Roshdi said on Saturday.

He said details of the trip were agreed during talks in Ankara on Friday between Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr and his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu.

Kurdish residents backed by militia have taken control of two towns in northeastern Syria near the border with Turkey after convincing pro-government forces to leave, a watchdog said on Saturday.

The region's Hasakeh province has seen heavy fighting in recent days between forces loyal to President Bashar Assad and rebels, with 46 combatants killed in two days as the opposition seized the border town of Ras al-Ain on Friday.

Baghdad cancelled a $4.2 billion arms package with Russia on Saturday citing graft concerns and instead opted for new talks, ending a deal that would have made Moscow Iraq's second-biggest arms supplier.

In a bizarre sequence, however, the acting defense minister who negotiated the deal directly contradicted the prime minister's office, insisting nothing had been cancelled, a position that was swiftly denied by the premier's spokesman.

Twin car bombs at a military officers' club in southern Syria killed at least 20 soldiers on Saturday, a watchdog said.

The two bombs exploded minutes apart in the back garden of the club in the city of Daraa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.