President Barack Obama said Saturday that the United States had concluded it was possible for a two-state Middle East peace solution to include sufficient guarantees to preserve Israeli security.

Obama said the determination had been made by the U.S. special envoy on security, General John Allen, who has been briefing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on possible security arrangements following any final peace deal.

Gunmen shot dead nine people at alcohol shops in the Iraqi capital on Saturday, security and medical officials said.

The shootings in the Waziriyah area of Baghdad also wounded at least five people, the sources said.

The Italian navy and coastguard said Saturday they rescued overnight over 100 Syrian refugees after their boat got into difficulties off the coast of Sicily.

The boat, which had launched distress signals while more than 300 miles south of Sicily, was located in the night by two naval vessels, said officials, adding that life jackets were then given to all passengers.

The largest Islamist rebel force in Syria seized arms depots belonging to the mainstream Western-backed Free Syrian Army on Saturday, a watchdog said, highlighting tensions among rebel groups.

"After combat that lasted all night, fighters from the Islamic Front captured (FSA) general staff positions near the Bab el-Hawa border crossing (with Turkey) and seized their arms depots," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Israeli army said Saturday that a blast the previous evening on the Golan Heights was from a bomb detonated as patrolling troops passed by, but that there were no casualties.

An investigation of the incident, which took place near the Syrian border, concluded that "the explosion was caused by a concealed explosive device operated against Israeli soldiers," a statement said.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told university students Saturday that tolerance could resolve the issue of political prisoners, as some of them chanted for opposition leaders under house arrest to be freed.

"My government is committed to the promises it has made to the people, but we need to create internal consensus to achieve the objectives," Rouhani told students at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran.

Israeli Foreign Minister Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are unlikely to bear fruit within the envisioned nine-month time-frame but that dialogue should continue.

His remarks Friday evening contrasted with those of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who said peace was closer than it had been in years.

Militants who launched a brazen daylight assault on the Yemeni defense ministry that killed 56 people were mostly Saudis, investigators said on Saturday.

The finding, in a preliminary report on the inquiry into Thursday's attack, adds credibility to a claim of responsibility by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which was formed from a merger of the jihadist network's Saudi and Yemeni branches.

The lawyer for 21 Egyptian women and girls jailed over an Islamist protest told appeal courts Saturday there was no evidence of their guilt and urged judges to free them.

Wearing handcuffs but holding red roses, the 21 appeared in Alexandria courts in white prison garb in a case that has sparked an outcry.

Officials from organizations with health-related missions in Syria called Friday for the protection of medical facilities and personnel there.

A joint statement by UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the U.N.'s humanitarian operations "strongly condemned" attacks on health facilities.