A car bomb targeting Shiite pilgrims in Iraq and the shooting of a lawyer and his family left 19 people dead on Wednesday, after al-Qaida warned it would target lawyers and retake territory in a new campaign.

The attacks were the latest in an apparent spike in unrest since the beginning of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, bringing to 88 the number of people killed so far this month.

A Russian general Wednesday denied reports he had been killed by rebels in Syria during an operation against President Bashar Assad's top security men.

General Vladimir Kuzheyev told reporters at a hastily arranged press conference at the Russian defense ministry in Moscow that he was flattered by the attention and happy to report he was well.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi ordered spy chief Murad Muwafi on Wednesday to retire in a shuffle of military and intelligence ranks after the deadliest militant attack on troops in decades.

The decision extended to Abdel Wahab Mabrouk, the governor of North Sinai where a weekend attack that killed 16 soldiers took place.

A Turkish lawyer who defended suspected al-Qaida militants has been killed in fighting in the Syrian city of Aleppo, Turkey's Anatolia news agency said Wednesday.

Osman Karahan, who represented several suspects accused of carrying out four truck bomb blasts in Istanbul in November 2003, was buried Tuesday after being killed in the heavy combat gripping the key northern city, his brother Ekrem Karahan told Anatolia.

Washington is pressing the Palestinian leadership to delay a fresh bid to seek upgraded U.N. status until after the U.S. elections, a senior Palestinian official said on Wednesday.

"There are pressures from the United States and some Arab parties to delay the voting until after the United States presidential elections, due in November," PLO Executive Committee member Saleh Raafat told Voice of Palestine radio.

A dozen countries are to attend a hastily called meeting in Tehran on Thursday to discuss ways to end the violence in Syria, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said, without saying who was coming.

"The consultative meeting on Syria will be held tomorrow in Tehran with 12 to 13 countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America" represented, Salehi said on Wednesday, the official news agency IRNA reported.

France on Wednesday confirmed the U.N. Security Council will hold a ministerial meeting on the Syria conflict on August 30 focused on the humanitarian situation in the country and its neighbors.

"Despite the divisions that have prevailed in recent months, the Security Council cannot remain silent about the tragedy being played out in Syria," French foreign ministry deputy spokesman Vincent Floreani said.

Kuwaiti lawmakers on Wednesday warned the government of the Gulf state against taking part in a meeting in Iran over the Syrian crisis, accusing Tehran of aiding the Damascus regime.

"Kuwait's participation in Tehran meeting is rejected because Iran hands are stained with the blood of the Syrian people," opposition Islamist MP Walid al-Tabatabai said in a statement.

Syria said its troops seized a rebel-held Aleppo district on Wednesday after storming it and "annihilating" most of the insurgents, as a long-threatened ground assault on the key city was launched.

The rebels promptly denied the claim, acknowledging that a "barbaric and savage attack" on the neighborhood of Salaheddin was under way but later saying they had recaptured much of what they lost.

Defected Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Hijab and his family crossed the border into Jordan on Wednesday morning, Information Minister Samih Maayatah said, clarifying previous reports he had done so at the weekend.

"Hijab and members of his family entered Jordan during the early hours of Wednesday," Maayatah, also government spokesman, told AFP without elaborating.