Attacks in Iraq on Thursday killed 11 people, including four soldiers, officials said, the latest in a wave of violence that has left 420 people dead so far this month.

Gunmen attacked a checkpoint in Taji, north of Baghdad, killing the four soldiers and wounding five others, security and medical officials said.

Peace between Israel and the Palestinians is a "priority," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on a visit to the region on Thursday, as he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"The Middle East peace process is... an urgent priority for the United Kingdom and to the world," he told reporters ahead of a meeting with Netanyahu.

Prime Minister Ali Larayedh said on Thursday that Tunisia is making progress in its bid to dismantle "terrorist" cells despite the presence in the country of armed groups and recent clashes with Islamists.

"There is progress in dismantling the terrorist networks. We are confronted by small groups who practice terrorism and have links to terrorist parties," Larayedh told a news conference.

Tehran on Thursday denied a Bahraini claim it had found an Iranian drone in the sea near Saudi Arabia, and urged Manama to refrain from making "baseless accusations", the ISNA news agency reported.

It cited an unnamed foreign ministry source as denying Bahrain's assertion that the downed aircraft was Iranian.

A military court in the Gaza Strip has sentenced a Palestinian to death for collaborating with Israel and another to life with hard labor, the Hamas interior ministry said on Thursday.

The 43-year-old, identified only by his initials AH, "has been sentenced to capital punishment for acts of collaboration wit the occupation", a ministry statement said.

Gunmen shot dead four Iraqi soldiers on Thursday, security and medical officials said, the latest attacks in a wave of violence that has killed more than 410 people so far this month.

The gunmen attacked a checkpoint in Taji, north of Baghdad, killing the soldiers and wounding five others, the officials said.

An international media watchdog has criticized a UAE court decision to uphold a 10-month jail sentence for a user of microblogging website Twitter who posted about the trial of 94 Islamists.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) also called for the immediate release of another man it said was arrested in the United Arab Emirates this month on similar charges.

Germany's foreign intelligence service believes Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces have gained strength, revising its prediction from last year of a quick regime collapse, a media report said.

Assad's forces are now able to keep the rebels in check, although victory remains elusive, according to a report by the service chief Gerhard Schindler, news site Spiegel Online reported.

Syria's main opposition group opened key talks Thursday in Istanbul to debate whether to negotiate with the regime on ending the bloody two-year civil war, as proposed by the U.S. and Russia.

During their three-day meeting, the Syrian National Coalition -- which is under fire from both its backers abroad and rebels on the ground -- is also expected to choose a new president, discuss expansion to include new members and decide the fate of an interim rebel government, opposition members told AFP.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday admitted there was skepticism and cynicism about his efforts to broker new talks between Israelis and Palestinians, as he made his fourth visit to Israel.

Flying in from a night of diplomacy in Amman over the war in Syria, Kerry went straight into talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he pursued his bid to kick-start negotiations frozen since late 2010.