Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu stumbled out of a bruising election Wednesday with a reduced majority, faced with having to curb his hawkish Palestinian policy to woo emergent centrist kingmaker Yair Lapid.

In results that defied expectations, the centrist Yesh Atid became Israel's second strongest party, just nine months after it was created by Lapid, a former journalist, who has overnight become the country's newest political star.

Jordan on Wednesday voted in a parliamentary poll snubbed by Islamists who alleged vote buying and shed doubt on turnout figures, slamming as illegitimate what is likely to be an opposition-free body.

The Independent Election Commission announced a turnout of 47 percent of the registered electorate of 2.3 million before polling stations were due to close at 1600 GMT.

French air raids on the fabled Malian city of Timbuktu destroyed a mansion belonging to Libya's former strongman Moammar Gadhafi which was being used by Islamist radicals as their headquarters, officials said.

French planes bombed a major base of the al-Qaida in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) near Timbuktu, a French defense ministry official confirmed on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. The last raids took place on Sunday night.

Five suspected al-Qaida militants were killed and several others wounded in a U.S. drone strike on Tuesday north of the Yemeni capital, tribal sources and witnesses said.

The missile attack targeted a group of militants in al-Jawf province near the Saudi border, one tribal source said, as the death toll was revised from three dead.

Benjamin Netanyahu's rightwing Likud-Beitenu list won a narrow majority in Tuesday's election but was weakened by an unexpectedly strong showing by the centrist Yesh Atid, according to exit polls.

The polls, released by Israel's three main television stations, showed Netanyahu's Likud, running on a joint list with the hardline Yisrael Beitenu, winning just 31 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, followed by Yesh Atid with 18-19 and Labor in third place with 17.

Bahrain's King Hamad has called for a new round of national dialogue, previously shunned by the Shiite-led opposition, the government's Information Affairs Authority said.

King Hamad's call follows last month's plea for dialogue made by Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, as protests continue in the Shiite-majority kingdom despite a heavy-handed crackdown on demonstrations in March 2011.

The U.N. rights body on Tuesday harshly criticized Iran for reportedly executing a man who was only 17 at the time of his alleged crime.

"The death penalty cannot be imposed for crimes committed by persons below 18 years of age," insisted Cecile Pouilly, a spokeswoman for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Syria's regime accused al-Qaida of being behind a deadly attack in Hama and criticized Turkey for sheltering what it called "terrorists," in a message to the U.N. aired by state television Tuesday.

"Armed terrorist groups headed by al-Qaida targeted citizens yesterday in the town of Salmiyeh in a cowardly terrorist act and destroyed the national hospital," the foreign ministry said in a letter to the U.N. secretary general and head of the Security Council.

At least 23 soldiers and pro-regime militiamen have been killed, and dozens wounded, in three days of fierce clashes in the central city of Homs, a flashpoint in Syria's conflict, a watchdog said Tuesday.

"We have reports from the military hospital in Homs of up to 130 soldiers and pro-regime fighters killed or wounded in the past three days," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Iraqi authorities claimed on Tuesday to have freed 888 prisoners in two weeks to placate month-long rallies in the country's Sunni areas that have hardened opposition against the Shiite prime minister.

The demonstrations come amid a political crisis that has pitted Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki against several of his erstwhile government partners just months ahead of provincial elections.