The discovery of 53 decaying bodies in Sirte, final bastion of Libya's ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi, suggests some of his loyalists were executed, a rights group said.

"We found 53 decomposing bodies, apparently Gadhafi supporters, at an abandoned hotel in Sirte," said Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch (HRW), who investigated the killings.

Attacks mainly targeting Iraqi traffic police across Baghdad on Monday killed at least four people, security and medical officials said.

In the deadliest attack, gunmen opened fire on a traffic police patrol near the al-Sarafiyah bridge in Waziriyah neighborhood in the north of the capital on Monday morning.

An Iranian-American accused of plotting to get Mexican gangsters to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington was due in federal court Monday in New York, when he was expected to enter a plea.

Manssour Arbabsiar, a naturalized U.S. citizen holding Iranian and U.S. passports who lived for many years in Texas where he worked as a used car salesman, was arrested last month at New York's John F. Kennedy international airport.

Libya's new leaders on Sunday declared the country "liberated", three days after ousted despot Moammar Gadhafi was captured and killed, paving the way for the formation of an interim government.

The long-awaited declaration came amid raging controversy over the circumstances of Gadhafi’s death after he was taken alive during the fall of his hometown Sirte. Britain said the incident had "stained" the National Transitional Council (NTC).

U.S. Senator John McCain raised the prospect Sunday of possible armed intervention to protect civilians in Syria where a crackdown on pro-democracy protests has killed more than 3,000 people.

"Now that military operations in Libya are ending, there will be renewed focus on what practical military operations might be considered to protect civilian lives in Syria," McCain told a World Economic Forum meeting in Jordan.

European Union leaders are ready to slap more sanctions on Syria failing a halt in the regime's violence against dissenters, EU president Herman Van Rompuy said at the close of a summit Sunday.

EU leaders "expressed grave concern over continued brutality against the population in Syria," Van Rompuy said, adding that if the violence did not stop the bloc "will impose restrictive measures against the regime."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Iran on Sunday not to "miscalculate" in Iraq, saying the U.S. military presence in the region would remain strong after the withdrawal of all American combat forces at the end of the year.

"No one, most particularly Iran, should miscalculate about our continuing commitment to and with the Iraqis going forward," she said in an interview with CNN from Uzbekistan.

Syrian security forces reportedly killed three more civilians on Sunday as troops raided villages in the southern province of Daraa, cradle of the pro-democracy protests.

Activists had called for fresh protests on Sunday under the slogan: "It's your turn" -- a reference to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- hoping to force him out of power in the way Libyans ended the rule of Moammar Gadhafi.

Tunisians formed snaking queues in the sun to vote in their first free election Sunday, basking in their status as democratic trail-blazers nine months after ousting a dictator and giving birth to the Arab Spring.

The Islamist Ennahda party was predicted to win the most votes but fall short of a majority in a new 217-member assembly that will rewrite the constitution and appoint a president to form a caretaker government.

Libya's interim government will hand the body of slain despot Moammar Gadhafi to his relatives after consulting with them on the location of his burial, a senior government advisor said on Sunday.

"The decision has been taken to hand him over to his extended family, because none of his immediate family are present at this moment," Ahmed Jibril told Agence France Presse.