U.S. officials have implicated a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner in the 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Militiamen led by Abu Sufian bin Qumu, chief of extremist group Ansar al-Sharia in Derna city, took part in the attack that killed U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, according to the daily.

The United States on Tuesday accused Iran of helping "brutalize" Syria as Secretary of State John Kerry prepared to talk to Russia about Tehran's potential role at a peace conference.

Kerry will meet in Paris on January 13 with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss whether Iran should take part in the conference later this month in Switzerland aimed at ending the nearly three-year-old war in Syria, the State Department said.

Gunmen attacked a police checkpoint north of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, killing seven including a captain, a police officer and a doctor said.

The attack took place on the highway north of the city of Samarra, the sources said.

Iraqi troops will delay assaulting the militant-held city of Fallujah, an officer said Tuesday, citing fear of civilian casualties, as fighting and missile strikes in nearby Ramadi killed 29 people.

Parts of Ramadi -- the capital of Anbar province, west of Baghdad -- and all of Fallujah have been outside government control since last week.

Libya's General National Congress on Tuesday failed to agree on what action to take about the embattled government of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, a member said.

His administration has been under fire for failing to tackle security problems and end an oil crisis that has dragged on for months after protesters shut key terminals, accusing the authorities of corruption.

A Spanish judge on Tuesday remanded in custody a man suspected of belonging to an al-Qaida linked militant group taking part in the Syrian conflict.

The judge ordered Abdelwahid Sadik Mohamed, 28, to be held in custody while he is investigated for the suspected crime of membership of a terrorist organisation because of the risk that he would flee or try to destroy evidence, according to a written ruling from the National Court.

Middle East peace talks could be extended beyond their April deadline, Israel's defense minister said Tuesday, insisting current negotiations aimed solely at providing a framework for final talks.

The remarks came a day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry left following four days of intense meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, during which he failed to reach agreement on a framework to guide the talks forward.

Britain has granted asylum to around 1,500 Syrians fleeing the brutal conflict in the last year, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg revealed Tuesday, as rights groups and even anti-immigration politicians urged action over the refugee crisis.

The British government has defended its policy of focusing on giving aid to help more than 2.35 million refugees caught up in the civil war, rather than offering a comprehensive resettlement program.

A fiery hot air balloon crash in Egypt last year that killed 19 tourists was probably caused by a gas leak, an official Egyptian report released on Tuesday said.

The accident took place on the morning February 26, soon after the balloon lifted off in the southern city of Luxor.

A steady stream of families fleeing fighting in Ramadi and Fallujah is arriving at a checkpoint in Iraq's Karbala province, seeking shelter from the deadly violence.

As militants hold parts of Ramadi and all of Fallujah, in Anbar province, Sunni families are now seeking safety in the Shiite-majority Karbala province, in a country that has been plagued by sharp sectarian divisions.