Iranian warships entered the Mediterranean after crossing the Suez Canal on Saturday to show Tehran's "might" to regional states, the navy commander said, at a time of simmering tensions with Israel.

According to Iran’s Mehr news agency the two warships have docked in the Syrian port of Tartus.

U.S. military and intelligence drones are reportedly monitoring the Syrian military's deadly crackdown on opposition forces and protestors.

U.S. defense officials told NBC News' Jim Miklaszewski that "a good number" of unmanned drones are monitoring the activities of the Syrian regime.

Bahrain announced the deportation of four foreign activists for "taking part in illegal demonstrations," bringing to 12 the number expelled over the past week.

The four were deported for "lying on immigration forms" as their "visas were issued for the purposes of tourism but all were participating in illegal demonstrations," the official BNA news agency reported late on Friday.

Yemeni troops killed three suspected al-Qaida members during overnight clashes around the southern city of Zinjibar, which was seized by the group in May, a military source said on Saturday.

"Two members of al-Qaida, including a local chief, died when a rocket hit their position in the suburbs of Zinjibar," the source said.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun called on all sides in Syria to stop the violence and said elections should go ahead peacefully after Damascus talks with President Bashar Assad Saturday, state media said.

"The position of China is to call on the government, the opposition and the rebels to halt acts of violence immediately," Zhai said, adding that it was vital that "calm be restored as quickly as possible as that serves the interests of the Syrian people."

Several hundred Iranian exiles arrived at a U.N.-approved site near Baghdad on Saturday, a first step in a process that aims to see them resettled outside Iraq, where they have been based for decades.

The move is part of a December 25 deal between the U.N. and Iraq, reached after extensive talks, under which around 3,400 Iranians opposed to the regime in Tehran are to move from their long-time base, Camp Ashraf, to a new location called Camp Liberty, with the aim of eventually moving them to other countries.

Iraqi Deputy Interior Minister Adnan al-Assadi accused some Arab states he did not identify Friday of helping to fund terrorism, and expressed concern about security at the Syrian border.

"Businessmen from some countries in the region, with the help of their governments, are providing significant funds to terrorist groups in Iraq," Assadi said in an interview with state television.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton denounced the arrest of blogger Razan Ghazzawi, rights campaigner Mazen Darwish and several other Syrian activists, calling Friday for their immediate release.

A statement from her office said she "deplores the arrest on Thursday by Syrian security forces" of Darwish, Ghazzawi and at least 12 others including Darwish's wife.

Dozens of people were hurt in clashes in southeast Yemen between rival demonstrators supporting and opposing Tuesday's presidential election, witnesses said on Friday.

They said the trouble began late on Thursday when activists of the pro-secession Southern Movement, which opposes the election, threw stones and petrol bombs at a sit-in of pro-election activists in Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt province.

Palestinian militants fired two rockets at southern Israel on Friday evening, causing neither casualties or damage, an Israeli military spokeswoman told Agence France Presse.

"A rocket landed in the Eshkol Regional Council; there was no damage or injuries reported," she said.