Thousands of African asylum seekers demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Tuesday for a third straight day of protests against Israel's immigration policies.

Migrants, most of them fleeing Eritrea or Sudan, held banners that read "We are refugees," and "No more prison," as they marched on Western embassies and the offices of the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR).

At least 274 people have been killed in four days in Syria since the outbreak of fighting between rebels and jihadists, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday.

The NGO said 129 fighters from moderate and Islamist rebel groups had been killed in the clashes since Friday, along with 99 members of the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and 46 civilians.

Iraqi troops failed to recapture jihadist-held areas of Anbar provincial capital Ramadi in a night-time assault that left four civilians dead, medical and security officials said on Tuesday.

Fighters loyal to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) were still in control of the south of the city, west of Baghdad, after fighting off the assault, police said.

Gunmen killed a police officer in Yemen's main southern city Aden on Tuesday, shortly after a bomb seriously wounded an intelligence officer, security officials said.

"Unknown gunmen in a vehicle opened fire on a police patrol car in the (central) Dreen district, killing Lieutenant Mubarak al-Ashram and wounding another officer," a police official told AFP.

A U.N.-hosted peace conference on Syria must work to remove President Bashar Assad from power because of his culpability for tens of thousands of deaths, Turkey's Prime Minster said in Tokyo on Tuesday.

"In Geneva 2, we must make sure that... all the measures will not fail...so that we can (bring) in an era without Bashar Assad," he said, referring to peace talks planned later this month in Switzerland.

Czech authorities are seeking answers over an arms find at the Palestinian mission in Prague, as the body of an envoy killed by an apparently accidental explosion there was flown home.

The coffin bearing the remains of 56-year-old Palestinian ambassador Jamal al-Jamal was placed aboard a regular flight to Amman from where it will be repatriated to the Palestinian Territories, the Czech CTK agency reported.

Lawyers for the Muslim Brotherhood have submitted a complaint to the ICC asking it to investigate the military's alleged crimes against humanity in Egypt, they said in London on Monday.

Lawyers acting for the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party said they hoped to meet with the International Criminal Court prosecutor in the coming months to discuss opening a preliminary investigation.

Iran on Monday brushed aside a U.S. offer of a sideline role in upcoming peace talks on Syria, saying Tehran would only accept offers that respect its "honor."

"Iran has always announced its readiness to participate without preconditions" in talks on Syria scheduled for January 22, foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham told the official IRNA news agency.

A plan for 272 new homes in West Bank settlements was approved on the eve of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's departure Monday, Israel's Peace Now movement said.

Israel had been expected to announce new settlement plans alongside the release of Palestinian prisoners last week -- as it did during previous releases -- in a bid to ease the concerns of hardliners as it engages in U.S.-brokered peace talks.

The Red Cross on Monday evacuated 34 people wounded in northern Yemen clashes between hardline Sunni Salafists and Shiite rebels, a statement said.

The 34 critically wounded were taken from Dammaj, in the Saada province, where Salafists have been besieged for months by Shiite Huthi rebels, according to a statement from the International Committee of the Red Cross .