Iranian police wounded five armed thugs in a rare shootout in Tehran, local media reported on Monday, quoting a senior police officer.

"There were some armed clashes when some thugs used firearms as the police tried to arrest them," Tehran police chief Hossein Sajedinia was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency, without specifying when the incident occurred.

Four suspected Al-Qaida militants were killed in an air raid that targeted their vehicle on Monday, Yemen's Defense Ministry announced, after tribal sources earlier said strikes by U.S. drones killed two.

"Four Al-Qaida terrorists were killed in an air raid today," said the Defense Ministry's news website 26sep.net, adding the attack took place on the road between Marib province, an Al-Qaida stronghold, and Sanaa.

At least 20 Palestinians were injured in clashes between protesters and Palestinian security forces at a refugee camp in Ramallah, medical sources said on Monday.

Seven members of the security forces, along with 13 protesters, were injured in the clashes at the Amaari camp, they said.

The Syrian opposition said on Monday it had postponed a decision on forming a government-in-exile at its meeting in Istanbul, saying it needs guarantees of support from dissident forces on the ground.

The Syrian National Council (SNC), a key component of the opposition, said the meeting held on Sunday formed a five-member panel to consult with the rebel Free Syrian Army, and other concerned parties on the issue.

Jordanians go the polls on Wednesday, but an Islamist boycott is expected to produce a toothless parliament that is unlikely to bring real reform, leaving the country in political uncertainty.

Jordan has high hopes for the election, seeking to turn it into the pivot of a reform process aimed at fending off protests inspired by Arab Spring revolts that have toppled four regimes.

The Israeli army early Monday morning removed a Palestinian protest encampment of four tents and a building under construction near a West Bank village, military sources said.

In addition to demolishing the structures near Beit Iksa, on the northwestern outskirts of Jerusalem, "20 Palestinians at the site were evicted without incident," the sources said.

Al-Qaida's front group in Iraq has claimed a wave of violence in the past week that killed at least 88 people, including a Sunni MP who was assassinated by a suicide bomber, a statement said.

The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) described lawmaker Ayfan al-Essawi as an "arrogant criminal" and said the spate of violence last week was carried out as revenge for Iraq's government holding Sunni female detainees.

Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki will make his first visit to Gaza on February 9, officials from the Hamas government told Agence France Presse on Sunday.

"Tunisia President Marzouki will carry out a very important visit to the Gaza Strip on February 9," Hamas official Ghazi Hammad said, without giving details of the president's itinerary, or who would be accompanying him.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the leader of the Kurdish region traded barbs on Sunday, each blaming the other for an ongoing political crisis amid weeks of anti-government protests.

The two issued rival statements in the latest in a series of disputes that have hardened opposition against Maliki and pitted him against several of his erstwhile government partners, including Iraq's main Kurdish political faction, who accuse him of authoritarianism and sectarianism.

Four people were killed overnight Sunday in a northern Cairo district as clashes erupted after a police officer accidentally killed a man while chasing a drug dealer, official sources said.

The clashes broke out outside a police station in the Shubra el-Kheima district when relatives and neighbors of the dead man gathered and then attacked the police with guns and Molotov cocktails, a security source said.