A Bahrain court on Wednesday sentenced 23 medics to three months in jail each for taking part in anti-regime protests last year and acquitted five others, the prosecution said.

Manama's lower criminal court sentenced 23 defendants to three months in jail or payment of 200 dinars ($530) each to have the prison terms suspended, prosecutor Abdulrahman al-Sayyed said, quoted by the official news agency BNA.

Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the Iraqi government on Wednesday of trying to drag the country into civil war, amid rising tensions between Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdish forces.

"The (Baghdad) regime wants to lead this (country) into a civil war," Erdogan told reporters in Ankara before he left for Pakistan.

The Syrian opposition will need $60 billion in Marshall Plan-style aid to prevent the country's collapse within six months of a fall of the regime, prominent leader George Sabra told reporters on Wednesday.

He urged a "Partnership to Invest in Future Syria" meeting held in Dubai to immediately launch a Marshall Plan for the Arab country, along the lines of the huge post-World War II recovery program for Europe.

An office of Arab satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera in the Egyptian capital was firebombed on Wednesday, a security official said, as protesters clashed near the downtown Tahrir Square.

"Unknown assailants" lobbed Molotov cocktails at the office which overlooks Tahrir, "causing a big fire which rescue services are working to put out," the official said.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon called for an immediate halt to rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip, after talks with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday.

"I reiterate my call for an immediate cessation of indiscriminate rocket attacks by Palestinian militants targeting Israeli populated centers. This is unacceptable," he told a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

A bomb blast ripped through the front of a crowded commuter bus as it passed the Israeli defense ministry in Tel Aviv during rush hour on Wednesday, injuring 17 people.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had been hit by a "terrorist attack," with Washington calling it "outrageous" and Russia branding it as "criminal".

A mortar shell smashed into a Damascus upmarket district that houses several embassies, killing one person and injuring several others, a watchdog and Syria's official media said on Wednesday.

The blast in Abu Rummaneh occurred on Tuesday, marking the first time the wealthy district has been targeted since the outbreak of an anti-regime revolt in March 2011.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas hopes a Gaza truce will be announced Wednesday before U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ends a visit to the region, a senior official said.

"President Abbas told Clinton that Egypt was the key to everything," said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat after a meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah between Clinton and Abbas.

Libya's deputy interior minister said Wednesday that gunmen assassinated the security chief of the eastern city of Benghazi overnight.

Omar al-Khadrawi said National Security Chief Col. Farag al-Dersi was shot dead while returning from work.

Iran bears a "heavy responsibility" in conflicts in the Middle East, especially in Gaza, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Wednesday.

Speaking specifically of Gaza, where a week of violence has claimed more than 140 lives, Fabius said: "There are long-range weapons up to 75 kilometers (45 miles) and these are Iranian weapons. Iran bears a heavy responsibility.