Kuwait's public prosecutor has ordered 61 stateless men be detained for three weeks pending a probe into their alleged involvement in protests that turned violent, their lawyer said Thursday.

The men were arrested in mid-January when riot police cracked down on thousands of stateless protesters who were demanding the right to Kuwaiti citizenship and a host of basic rights.

Bomb attacks in Iraq on Thursday killed 13 people, including 10 who died in a bomb attack on the home of two brothers who were policemen, medics and police said.

The violence is the latest in a spate of unrest in the weeks since U.S. forces completed their withdrawal on December 18, with Iraq mired in a political stand-off that has pitted the Shiite-led government against the main Sunni-backed political bloc.

Bahraini police and anti-government protesters clashed in Shiite villages, leaving dozens of officers and several demonstrators injured, officials and the opposition said Wednesday, as a Bahraini court ruled that King Hamad acted lawfully when he declared a quasi state of emergency in March ahead of a crackdown on Shiite-led democracy protests.

The interior ministry accused protesters of "orchestrated attacks on police forces ... across the kingdom" that caused "significant injuries" to 41 officers, two of them requiring "critical care" at Bahrain's military hospital.

The Syrian regime and opposition on Wednesday traded blame for the killing of a Christian cleric and a regional Syrian Red Crescent chief.

An "armed terrorist group" killed a priest in the protest hub of Hama in central Syria on Wednesday, state media said, as regime forces reportedly pounded the city for a second day.

Libyan Defense Minister Osama Juili said Wednesday that the oasis town of Bani Walid was under government control as he toured the former Moammar Gadhafi bastion days after deadly clashes.

"The town is in the control of the Libyan government," Juili told reporters. "The problem that started has been resolved," he added, referring to clashes on Monday in which at least five people died.

Egyptian authorities grounded a Libyan Airlines flight on Wednesday after an attendant found a suspected bomb in a toilet on the aircraft, airport officials told Agence France Presse.

Tripoli-bound flight 203 was due to leave Cairo International Airport when a member of the cabin crew found "a metal object" in one of the plane's toilets shortly before take-off.

Syrian security forces raked the central protest city of Hama with heavy machinegun fire and explosives on Wednesday for the second straight day, as troops killed 18 civilians and six army deserters across the country, activists said.

"The Syrian army is bombarding Hama with heavy weapons, using rocket-propelled grenades," said a statement from the Local Coordination Committees, which organizes anti-regime protests on the ground.

Russia said Wednesday it was "open to constructive proposals" on Syria but remained opposed to any U.N. resolution that tried to force all nations to respect sanctions previously imposed by the West.

"We are open to constructive proposals that go in line with the set task of ending violence," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said following talks with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu.

Egyptians poured into Tahrir Square on Wednesday to mark a year since the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, with the ruling military planning grandiose celebrations and activists vowing to reignite their unfinished revolution.

Thousands of Islamists, liberals, leftists and ordinary citizens entered the square, the epicenter of protests that ousted Mubarak, waving flags and bearing banners reflecting the day's different messages.

President Barack Obama hailed the demise of Libya's Moammar Gadhafi and warned Syria's Bashar Assad his regime's days were numbered Tuesday as he vowed enduring U.S. support for the ideals of the Arab Spring.

"As the tide of war recedes, a wave of change has washed across the Middle East and North Africa, from Tunis to Cairo; from Sanaa to Tripoli," Obama said in his annual State of the Union address in Congress.