Human Rights Watch on Thursday accused the Syrian opposition of using young boys to serve as fighters, guards and lookouts in the brutal conflict with regime forces.

"Children as young as 14 have served in at least three opposition brigades, transporting weapons and supplies and acting as lookouts," the New York-based watchdog said. "Children as young as 16 have carried arms and taken combat roles against government forces."

Spain said Thursday it had decided to recognize the opposition Syrian National Coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government also invited the Syrian opposition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib to visit Spain.

Waving their national flag and expressing hope for a new voice on the international stage, Palestinians rallied on Thursday in the West Bank and Gaza Strip ahead of their new U.N. bid.

Thousands gathered at celebratory demonstrations across the territories in the hours before Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was to address the General Assembly on the bid for enhanced U.N. status.

Protesters torched a security post and two police vehicles in central Tunisia on Thursday, Agence France Presse reported, as anti-government protests spread from the town of Siliana.

Hundreds of people demonstrated for a third straight day in Siliana demanding that the government-appointed regional governor step down, raising fears of fresh violence after bloody clashes there on Wednesday that left more than 250 people wounded.

The Syrian regime was the only government in the world to lay new landmines this year, campaigners said Thursday as they issued an annual report on the use and effect of the devastating weapons.

Mark Hiznay, the editor of the report for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), said the finding is a significant change from last year, when four governments laid mines, and represents the lowest number since the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty was signed in 1997.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday downplayed a Palestinian attempt to secure upgraded status at the United Nations, saying it won't help them achieve their long-promised state.

"The decision at the United Nations today won't change anything on the ground," Netanyahu said at a ceremony in Jerusalem. "It won't promote the establishment of a Palestinian state, it will distance it.

Most communications were down in Syria on Thursday evening as regime troops launched a major offensive in southeastern Damascus along the airport road, monitors said.

The army attacked rebel strongholds in a string of towns along the highway and near the airport, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France Presse by phone. State media also reported operations in the area.

Germany will abstain in Thursday's vote at the United Nations on whether to grant upgraded diplomatic status to the Palestinians, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said.

"Germany will abstain at today's vote in the General Assembly of the United Nations on the non-member observer status for the Palestinian Authority," Westerwelle said in a statement.

A controversial panel boycotted by liberals and Christians gathered Thursday to vote on a new Egyptian constitution that is at the heart of a power struggle between the Islamist president and his opposition.

Live television footage showed members being asked to sit down in the senate building, where the panel has met for more than over five months, to prepare for the procedure.

Bombs targeting Shiite Muslims and security forces in Iraq on Thursday killed 38 people and wounded 107 others in the deadliest day of violence to hit the country in more than two months.

The attacks, the worst since 76 people were killed on September 9, marked the second series of bombings against Shiites this week after three car bombs exploded near their places of worship in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing a dozen and wounding scores more.